Positive self-feedback phases

The following extract constitutes part of a positive self-feedback phase from day five of the course. The extract will not be subject to a full analysis, rather, it will be drawn upon to illustrate the salient interactional features of this phase; Liz is the Tr and Annie is the Tw.

Extract 6 – “What do you feel good about?” D5FB 39-65

1 L: !so (1.0) lets start with you=what do you feel good about

2 (0.6)

3 A: u::m I feel like I did a better job at setting up my lesson

4 pla::n, like I showed you:: this [morning] (.) u:m it so=

5 L: [ah ha ]

6 A: =really <its getting to::> (0.6) understand the structure

7 (.)

8 L: yep

9 (0.3)

10 A: you kno:w (.) u::m so I think that that (.) helped (.) um

11 ‘tch a:nd I think I I tried to: (.) not use over

12 complicated language, >you know< I think I probably still

13 did a bi:t, (.) and it’s going to be something that I (.)

14 >you know< struggle with a bit a:t the beginning but I

15 think that I will (.) get (.) the:re (.) I think I’ll get

16 better with i:t,

17 (0.2)

18 L: .hhh (.) definitely some improveme:nt (0.6) >I mean it’s<

19 not something that is (.) just going to: (.) radically

20 change overni:ght=

21 A: =right

22 (.)

23 L: but you’ve made improvement you’ve wo:rked on it

24 (0.4)

25 A: I was mind, (.) I was very mi::ndful of it today (.) you

26 kno:w just to be carefu:l of the language that I u::sed so:

27 (.) I think that eve:n (.) just doing that (.) is (.)for

28 me: you know °an improvement° a:h

29 (0.3)

31 annie has said or what did you notice

32 (0.9)

33 S: I (.) I did noti:ce (.) u:m that she was making an effo:rt

34 (.) to really speak clea:rly and slo:wly and choosing her

35 wo:rds um

The extract opens with the Tr instigating the transition from the ‘how do you feel’ sequence, which proceeded this extract, to the positive self-feedback phase of this Tw’s cycle. This action is carried out by the Tr, as is almost always the case12_{, through an FBT initiating}

question, in this extract formulated as “what do you feel good about?”: a request for an account. This question projects several expectations: that it will generate a second pair part from the Tw, that this second pair part will orient to a positive assessment, and that the second pair part will be about a specific aspect of the Tw’s practice from the lesson they have just taught. The Tw provides two positive feedback topics, in response to the Tr’s request; first, setting up her lesson plan (lines 3-6), and second, trying not to use over-complicated language (lines 10-16). The trainer orients to her first FBTI with the use of acknowledgment and continuer tokens (lines 5 and 8), giving her the interactional space to reflect on these aspects of her lesson. Liz then provides an assessment, to the second FBT, in line 18, in the form of praise: “definitely some improveme:nt”. This is expanded, with further

‘support’ from the Tr, who suggests that she should not expect a quick solution to the issue she brought up, and gives her praise for the improvements she has already made (lines 18-20 and 23). The Tw further expands on her positive assessment in the next turn (lines 25-28), making an epistemic claim that being “mi::ndful” of the issue, has improved her practice. In this turn she is therefore making a claim that by ‘being mindful’ or reflecting on her practice, she has improved her pedagogical practice. In next turn position (line 30-31), the Tr explicitly opens the floor to contributions from the Tes in the group, nominating any of the Te’s (other than the Tw) to make positive assessments/claims about ‘A’s practice. The trainer’s action performs the transition from the positive self-feedback phase to the positive group feedback phase, which will be analysed in the following section.

12 _{There are occasional instances in the corpus where the Tw carries out this transition}

through stepwise moves from the HDYF sequence and initiates a first FBT without a request from the trainer.

The above extract illustrates a number of features that are common to the positive self- feedback phases within this corpus. The first of these is that the Tr initiates this phase, which is the case in almost every instance in the corpus13. This action is usually performed through a question, formulated to project the expectation of an account from the Tw, which is positive, and specific about an area of their practice. The second of these features is that within this phase, the Tw is the participant who has the interactional rights to determine and initiate the FBTs. Though there are rare occasions in the corpus where the Tr initiates FBTs in this phase, there are no instances in which the other Tes carry out this action in this phase. The extract also illustrates the clear and explicit transitions that delineate between the phases of the OSO in these feedback meetings (cf. Vasquez and Reppen, 2007)

Another feature of this phase is that the participation framework, at least in terms of verbal utterances, is almost exclusively between the Tr and Tw. There are instances in the corpus where the other Tes join the (verbal) participation framework of this phase, but they are almost always limited to short tokens, such as agreement. The other Tes within the group also carry out embodied aspects of participation within these phases, through gaze, body positioning, and gestures such as nodding. The final feature of this phase, which is

demonstrated in the previous extract, is the ‘valence’ of the Tw’s assessments/claims that are ‘allowable’. Within this positive self-feedback phase only assessments with a positive

valence will be ‘allowed’ by the Tr, as illustrated in section 4.3.

To summarise, the opening phase of a feedback cycle is the positive self-feedback phase. Within this phase the Tw is expected to introduce and discuss feedback topics that are positively evaluated by the Tw. The Tw, and very occasionally the Tr, are the only participants who have the interactional ‘rights’ to introduce feedback topics within this phase. The participation framework within positive-feedback phases is therefore between the Tw and the Tr, though other trainees in the group occasionally join the participation

framework with minimal utterances, such as acknowledgement, agreement or laughter tokens. The institutional (sub) goal for this phase is to provide a space for the Tw to give positive self-feedback on particular aspects of their teaching practice within the lesson they

13 _{There are occasional exceptions in this corpus where the Tw performs a stepwise move out}

of a HDYF sequence by introducing the first FBT, and thus initiating the transition to this phase.

previously taught. The reflexive relationship between interaction in the phases and the institutional goals within those phases will be expanded upon within the discussion chapter (section 6.3). Following the closing of the positive self-feedback phase, the interactants in this corpus invariably transition to the positive group-feedback phase, which is the subject of the next section of this chapter.