Asking different types of polar questions: The interplay between turn, sequence, and context in writing conferences

Abstract

Using video recordings of one-on-one writing conferences as data, this conversation analytic study provides a sequential analysis of student-initiated question-answer sequences and demonstrates that the building of social interaction is contingent upon the composition of a turn as well as its position in the larger sequence. In particular, the article focuses on the distinct sequential environments in which students use yes/no interrogatives and yes/no declaratives. In the context of writing conference, the epistemic asymmetry between the participants is made relevant throughout the session; in general, the teacher is in a more knowledgeable position, whereas the student is in a less knowledgeable position concerning writing practices. Nonetheless, students invoke a different degree of knowledge gap between the participants by using different forms of polar questions. This article illustrates how students convey their epistemic positions with different syntactic structures and how such distinct positions are ratified in the unfolding sequence. The analysis of this study contributes to finding new aspects of question-answer sequences and pedagogical practices.

Confirmation or Elaboration: What Do Yes/No Declaratives Want?

“…Lee's (2015) and Park's (2012) findings are in line with Englert's (2010) for Dutch, a language that is structurally very similar to English. In typical Dutch declarative clauses the subject is clause-initial and immediately followed by the finite verb.…”

Or -prefaced third turn self-repairs in student questions

“…On the other hand, teacher responses to the students' or-prefaced third turn self-repairs show that their commitment to using the question-answer sequence as a teachable moment, expanding on the sequence with how and why (cf. Park, 2012). They orient toward addressing the underlying issue that student questions reveal rather than providing a preferred type-conforming answer to third turn repairs.…”

Writing-in-interaction

“…Some authors integrate these methods together: for example, in his study on newswriting, Perrin (2013) combines all three approaches (analysis of drafts and texts, ethnographic observation and key logging). He is also very much oriented to actionresearch and to collaboration with practitioners, thus demonstrating that all of the above can be done with different interests of knowledge (in the Habermasian sense): description, applied orientation (e.g., writing pedagogy), critique and change of existing practices (Prior and Thorne 2014).…”