Appraising lexical bundles in mathematics classroom discourse: obligation and choice

Abstract

Working from a large corpus of transcripts from secondary mathematics classrooms, we identify patterns of speech that encode interpersonal positioning. We extend our analysis from a previous article (Herbel-Eisenmann, Wagner & Cortes, Educ Stud Math, 2010, in press), in which we introduced a concept from corpus linguistics-a "lexical bundle," which has been defined as a group of three or more words that frequently recur together, in a single group, in a particular register. In that article we noted the prevalence of pervasive stance bundles unique to the mathematics classroom register. Because stance bundles communicate personal feelings, attitudes and values, we noted the importance of positioning in mathematics classrooms. In this article, we interpret the stance bundles as they relate to authority in mathematics classrooms by organizing them into groups that relate to the ways in which students are assumed to have choice in the discourse and to have obligations. Gradations of obligation and choice are important because they can help mathematics educators think about the ways in which they might open up or close down discourse in the classroom. We argue that it is important for university researchers, classroom teachers, and even mathematics students to engage in conversations about issues of authority, as they relate to developing mathematical understanding in their classroom discourse.This article shows how secondary mathematics teachers' recurring multi-word language choices, which structure mathematics classroom discourse, encode teacher and disciplinary authority in ways that could encourage limited student agency. We extend our analysis from

Productive Disruptions: Rethinking the Role of Off-Task Interactions in Collaborative Mathematics Learning

“…Other work has focused on how acts of positioning enable or constrain particular student learning opportunities [31][32][33][34][35][36] (See Figure 3). For example, Wood showed that particular acts of positioning opened or closed mathematics learning opportunities [36].…”

Remythologizing Mystery in Mathematics: Teaching for Open Landscapes versus Concealment

“…In Herbel-Eisenmann and Wagner's quantitative analysis of a large corpus of mathematics classroom transcripts, two relevant authority structures were identified as pervasive [25]. They found that expressions of necessity were very prevalent in the discourse.…”

Lexical bundle analysis in mathematics classroom discourse: the significance of stance

“…They did not include them in the functional analysis, however, because the contracted form makes these four-word bundles but with five word units (with the two-word contraction) developed our own categorization of the stance bundles from the SMC Corpus to identify nuances within the encoding of perspective (Herbel-Eisenmann & Wagner, 2010). Similarly, the bundles classified as encoding intention/prediction in the SMC Corpus are all personal, and over half of them do not appear in the other two corpora.…”

“…Second, this demonstration that the structuring of stance is central to mathematics classroom discourse makes it clear that the mathematics classroom register includes features that are not present in what many scholars see as the mathematics register-namely the pervasiveness of references to personal identity (represented by the pronoun I) and the tendency to appeal to the teacher's personal desire when requesting obligation (see Herbel-Eisenmann & Wagner, 2010, for more about this). Both of these features do not appear in school mathematics textbooks, which are part of the classroom register but may be seen as straddling the line between it and the mathematics register.…”