Inquiry-based opening-up 52!

Opening stage is identified as an inquiry-based process as the teacher asks the same questions in three different moves (noting that the term “inquiry” is used to emphasize the pedagogic

activities and relations while ‘enquiry’ or ‘enquire’ is used in this thesis specifically as a

technical term—a type of “sourcing of meaning” in the pedagogic modalities within the current analytical framework in Rose, 2014, together with other terms for the types of sourcing such as

“recall”, “present” and etc.. See Chapter Three for more details on the analytical framework). These questions are realized by three learning cycles (see Table 4.1 below, each cycle separated by a line) that commence one lesson activity of proposing a L2 word (snowman). Analysis shows that there are in total 6 types of cycle phases in these learning cycles, including Direct, Focus, Evaluate and Extend phases in teacher talk, and Propose and Rehearse phases in students’ talk.

spkr exchange gloss pedagogic activities

cycle phases matter

T , TELL ME. WHAT IS IT? TELL ME WHAT IT IS Focus L2 word T T

T {Pointing to S1} YOU PLEASE. Direct

S1 {No answer} Not Propose

T {T gestures S1 to sit down} Reject

T ? WHO CAN TELL US

THE ANSWER? Focus

L2 word T

,

IF YOUR EYES WERE NOT ON ME, YON WON’T KNOW THE ANSWER.

Direct attention

{Some students raise hands}

T YOU PLEASE. _Direct

S2 Snowman. Propose L2 word

T Very good. Affirm praise

T Now let’s say it together,

snowman. Focus

L2 pronunciation

W Snowman. Rehearse L2 pronunciation

T Very Good. Affirm praise

T So boys and girls, today, let’s talk about…

_Extend topic/field T {Pauses, shows a picture of a

farm on the screen, writes down ‘Animals’ on the top left corner above 8 pictures of different animals on the board} T ...animals

Table 4.1 Pedagogic activities at Opening stage

In Table 4.1, ‘Cycle phases’ column points out the phases in a learning cycle, and ‘matter’ column shows the matter of each phase, i.e. what the phase is about. Participants at this stage include both individual student 1 (S1) and student 2 (S2), and the whole class (W). The core structure of the pedagogic activities in the cycles is sequenced as

the three learning cycles are respectively structured as: Focus ^ Not Propose ^ Reject

Focus | Direct | ^ Propose ^ Affirm Focus ^ Rehearse ^ Affirm ^ Extend

In these cycles, the teacher gains students’ attention through Focus questions; and students propose a L2 word (snowman) from recalling their prior knowledge. Local language (LL) is applied in the initiating phases (Focus & Direct), while it is then switched to TL in Evaluate and Extend phases in which the teacher confirms Student 2’s answer and asks the whole class to rehearse the target L2 words (nothing that different from what the caret “^” represents in the structure, the use of bar “|” between two phases means both phases are involved in one move and there is no specific sequence of the phases).

Specifically, in Cycle 1, the teacher initiates classroom learning by raising a broad

question (Focus) related to students’ prior knowledge on a L2 word (snowman), with limited hint and scaffolding (merely gesturing the shape of a snowman). Student 1 is asked but proposes no answers (Not propose). The teacher then gestures him to sit down without any comments (Reject). In Cycle 2, the teacher seems to notice the necessity of reminding all the students to pay attention to her gesturing. A Direct phase is adopted before asking the next student. This phase helps to focus students’ attention on specific places, i.e. her body language. This second attempt thus helps to receive an expected answer from Student 2 (Propose). It is followed by the teacher’s praise— ‘very good’ (Affirm). Then, the teacher repeats the L2 word— ‘snowman’ (Focus) and invites students to have a pronunciation drilling (Rehearse) in Cycle 3. She then ends Opening stage by stating the topic of the review lesson— ‘animal’ (Extend; this term “Extend” means connecting or bridging to a new topic while “Elaborate” means explaining and illustrating the knowledge discussed in the exchange and then connecting to new knowledge). Turning back to the function at the rank of learning activity (as in Figure 4.1 in section 4.1), these three learning cycles at Stage of Controlled Practice function together as a Focus phase to the whole review lesson as it draws students’ attention on the review lesson topic.

In terms of the pedagogic relations, both knowledge and action exchanges are identified in these cycles. As pointed out previously, knowledge and action exchanges are also considered as regulative register and instructional register (Christie, 2002). At this Opening stage, the

teacher takes the initiating roles in both types of exchanges, encoded as primary knower (K1) or delayed primary knower (dK1), and secondary actor (A2); students as secondary knower (K2) (following Berry, 1981; Martin, 1992). The teacher and students’ exchange roles are illustrated in detail in Table 4.2 below.

spkr exchange gloss pedagogic relations

roles participants T , TELL ME. WHAT IS IT? TELL ME WHAT IT IS dK1 Class T Class T Class

T {Pointing to S1} YOU PLEASE. dK1 Ind: S1

S1 {No answer} (K2) (T)

T {T gestures S1 to sit down} (K1f) (Ind: S1)

T ? WHO CAN TELL US

THE ANSWER? dK1

Class T

,

IF YOUR EYES WERE NOT ON ME, YON WON’T KNOW THE ANSWER.

A2/K1 Class

{Some students raise hands} A1

T YOU PLEASE. dK1

S2 Snowman. K2 T

T Very good. K1’ Ind: S2

T Now let’s say it together,

snowman. dK1

Class

W Snowman. K2 (voc) T

T Very Good. _K1’ Class

T So boys and girls, today, let’s talk about...

K1f/dK1 Class

T {Pauses, shows a picture of a farm on the screen, writes down ‘Animals’ on the top left corner above 8 pictures of different animals on the board}

A1 Class

T ...animals K1 Class

Table 4.2 Pedagogic relations at Opening stage

In Table 4.2, ‘roles’ column shows the exchange roles of the speaker(s). ‘Participants’ column shows the addressees of the speakers. Thus, the exchange structures in these three learning cycles are respectively sequenced as:

dK1^K2^K1 A2^A1

In Cycle/Exchange 1, the Focus phase is enacted as the teacher’s dK1 role (what is it). Student 1’s no response is enacted as K2 role in the round bracket (Noted in the video data, Student 1 is no longer volunteering to answer any question in the rest of the lesson). In

Cycle/Exchange 2, Focus phase remains enacted as the teacher’s dK1 role, and Direct phase as her A2 role (‘looks at me’). It leads to more students’ A1 response (simply by raising hands) and Student 2’s K2 proposing that is praised by Teacher’s K1’ role. In Cycle/Exchange 3, Elaborate phase is presented by the teacher’s K1 and dK1 roles, and Rehearsing the L2 pronunciation presents students’ K2 or vocalise role (as ‘voc’ in the following). Although this dK1 role is realized by a command or interrogative mood, it is still a knowledge exchange because the teacher models the knowledge from the phonological level. Later, she evaluates their

pronunciation enacted as a K1’ role (‘very good’). Towards the end, the teacher’s Extend phase is enacted as a primary knower follow-up move (K1f).

Regarding the pedagogic modalities, the sources of the exchange at Opening stage rely on both students and teacher’s knowledge on a L2 word, shown in Table 4.3 below.

spkr exchange gloss pedagogic modalities

mode source T , TELL ME. WHAT IS IT? TELL ME WHAT IT IS

enquire prior knowledge T

T

T {Pointing to S1} YOU PLEASE.

S1 {No answer}

T {T gestures S1 to sit down}

T ? WHO CAN TELL US

THE ANSWER? enquire prior knowledge

T ,

IF YOUR DIDN’T LOOK AT ME, YON WON’T KNOW THE ANSWER; BUT IF YOU KEPT LOOKING AT ME, YOU SURELY KNOW THE ANSWER. {Some students raise hands}

T YOU PLEASE.

S2 Snowman. recall prior knowledge

T Very good.

T Now let’s say it together, snowman.

present teacher knowledge W Snowman. pronounce teacher knowledge

T Very Good. T So boys and girls,

today, let’s talk about…{shows a picture of a farm on the screen, writes down ‘Animals’ on the top left corner above 8 pictures of different animals on the board} ...animals.

refer images, board Table 4.3 Pedagogic modalities at Opening stage

In Table 4.3, the teacher first enquires students about a L2 word and students need to recall L2 knowledge from previous lessons. She then presents teacher knowledge on L2 word pronunciation and asks students to rehearse. Later, she refers to four images of animals on the screen and the board, and presents the written word ‘animal’ as the topic of the review lesson which concludes the Opening stage.

Regarding the knowledge projected, there are simply two lexical items being

negotiated— ‘snowman’ and ‘animals’. The teacher makes a transition from the negotiation of ‘snowman’ to ‘animals’ by using a grammatical conjunction ‘so’. It seems that she intended to make this learning activity as a ‘lead-in’ to the review topic. However, neither lexical relations nor reference relations can be identified between this repeated L2 word (snowman) and the topic of the lesson (animals). There is no actual connection of the fields (refers to Martin, 1999) between these words either.