Literature Review: ‘Being the Teacher”: Identity and Classroom Conversation

Literature Review: ‘Being the Teacher”: Identity and Classroom Conversation

Through this chapter was explored a discourse interaction between a teacher and some learners; besides, some pedagogical implications were analyzed. The paper took into account aspects such as the IRF cycle, classroom conversation, interactional construction, interactional patterns, conversations between the teacher and students, and the pedagogical implications. 

IRF is a pedagogical tool used by teachers in order to control conversations; the acronym stands for “initiation, response, evaluation” or “initiation, response, feedback”. Some scholars consider that IRF is associated with language learning progress; however, class motivation and class level are relevant if there is a lack of information. An alternative to contribute to this process is to replace evaluation by self-selection, so students will be able of making their own decisions and contribute to the conversation; nevertheless, the researcher starts the analysis thinking about the possibility of having a conversation in the classroom. In an academic scenario, conversation is a natural and spontaneous act, but currently when the teacher says: ‘have a conversation in English’, there is a pedagogical purpose behind, although unanticipated and spontaneous speech could happen. In order to promote conversation inside the language classroom, Seedhouse (1996) suggests two conditions: the students should see the teacher as a partner and, teacher should not lead the conversation.

Regarding the analysis of interaction among teachers and learners, Zimmers (1998) proposes three aspects about identity. The first one is the discourse identity, which refers to the development of the conversation while the learners get involved in the conversation. The second one is situated identity, which means that every participant accomplishes a task according to his or her role. The third aspect is transportable identity, which stands that physical appearance and cultural background are peoples’ insignia. Other aspect mentioned by Zimmer is the default identity which means that interactional expectations are connected to the context, and it could be used to control discourse identities in the classroom. Through the analysis of the paper, the researcher finds how Zimmerman's dimensions change or influence the interaction in the language classroom. 

Some colleagues could agree that teachers tend to keep the floor of the conversation, ask questions, provide instructions and provide feedback while the students answer what the teacher is asking for, those aspects are related with a default position. Nonetheless, there are situations in which learners are aware of a topic that the teacher did not know, and immediately the discourse identity changes. Discourse and situated identities, are an example of how sometimes the learners take the role of the teacher and the teacher encourages learners to provide more information while assuming student’s role. Finally, transportable identity could be evidenced in situations in which the context and cultural background could influenced the discourse.

To sum up, the three strategies mentioned before are implications that could be used for pedagogical purposes by considering emotional and moral aspects that promotes a better interaction between the teacher and learners; however, teachers avoid engaging interaction due to discipline issues. The aim of this paper is to provide a picture of different situations that could occur in a language classroom, and how to take advantage of aspects such as students’ spontaneous interaction, and learners’ background knowledge in order to promote a learning environment, where learners feel comfortable to participate and provide information regarding the topic. Although for teachers could be difficult to let students keep the control of the discourse due to discipline, classroom management strategies could be implemented within controlling the conversation. Evaluation is another reason that teachers have in order to control the discourse, since they tend to correct their learners. On the other hand, students answer teacher’s questions and wait for teacher’s feedback.

Furthermore, for preschool teachers, is recommended to encourage learners to have an active role through conversation. At the beginning it could be difficult since learners do not understand everything, but they tend to contribute to the conversation if they understand something. As it was mentioned in the text, if students’ discourse is not accurate to the topic, the fact of be willing to participate is a great opportunity for them at the moment of interacting with others. What is expected from the teacher is that if students require support, he or she will be able to do it without controlling the conversation. Finally, teachers’ personal and institutional identity are linked, due to the teacher’s identity is constructed through interaction, and it impacts at some point our teaching practice as well as our learners.