‘Being the Teacher’: Identity and Classroom Conversation

Richards, Keith

doi:10.1093/applin/ami041

Cited by 193 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…A person's transportable identity subsumes all the factors which come together to make a person's identity unique to them; their sex, race, passions, fears, hopes, dreams and so on. In order for a visualisation to be truly internalised, and therefore effective from a motivational standpoint, all areas of a person's transportable identity must be embraced, creating a vision which reflects not only their personal context but all aspects of their character (Richards, 2006;Ushioda, 2011).…”

Section: Vision In the L2 Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Directed Motivational Currents: Using vision to create effective motivational pathways

Muir

Dörnyei

2013

SSLLT

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Vision, that is, the mental representation of the sensory experience of a future goal state (involving imagination and imagery), is currently at the forefront of motivational innovation, and in recent years it has been seen increasingly more often in the motivational tool kit of practicing language teachers. Theories such as Dörnyei's L2 motivational self system have explored the power that creating effective visions can harness (see, e.g., Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014) and when viewed in conjunction with other current research avenues, such as future time perspective and dynamic systems theory, vision offers exciting potential. A Directed Motivational Current is a new motivational construct that we suggest is capable of integrating many current theoretical strands with vision: It can be described as a motivational drive which energises long-term, sustained behaviour (such as language learning), and through placing vision and goals as critical central components within this construct, it offers real and practical motivational potential. In this conceptual paper, we first discuss current understandings of vision and of Directed Motivational Currents, and then analyse how they may be optimally integrated and employed to create effective motivational pathways in language learning environments.

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Section: Vision In the L2 Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Directed Motivational Currents: Using vision to create effective motivational pathways

Muir

Dörnyei

2013

SSLLT

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“…A study applying an identities approach to analysis of interactions in English as a second language raised some implementation issues and related them to 'authenticity'. For a teacher to deliberately adopt a transportable identity in the early years classroom, for example to switch from teacher to playmate, family member or to someone with a special interest, appears to involve considerable emotional, relational and moral considerations (Richards 2006). Also, such a teacher strategy might possibly undermine authentic dialogue and require the teacher to draw careful boundaries, for example they may hold beliefs as a parent that clash with accepted professional values or practice within their school (Zimmerman 1998;Richards 2006).…”

Section: Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a teacher to deliberately adopt a transportable identity in the early years classroom, for example to switch from teacher to playmate, family member or to someone with a special interest, appears to involve considerable emotional, relational and moral considerations (Richards 2006). Also, such a teacher strategy might possibly undermine authentic dialogue and require the teacher to draw careful boundaries, for example they may hold beliefs as a parent that clash with accepted professional values or practice within their school (Zimmerman 1998;Richards 2006). This paper will argue that the use of less formal 'continuous provision' in the early years, that is children learning through play in planned environments, may provide particular opportunities for teachers to consider adopting transportable identities to promote dialogue during interactions.…”

Section: Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning conversations: teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings

Boyd

2014

International Journal of Early Years Education

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Learning conversations, dialogic interactions with adults, are important opportunities for children to develop their thinking as well as their speech and language skills. This area of teachers' practice is informed by a well-established body of research evidence and professional guidance literature. The design and facilitation of this practitioner research project was framed by a metaphor for teachers' professional learning as 'interplay' between the vertical domain of public, published, knowledge and the horizontal domain of the teachers' practical wisdom. The teacher researchers used a framework based on the published literature to analyse video clips of their conversations with children in early years workplace settings. The study highlights the power of video analysis as a prompt for professional learning within a practitioner research framework. The use of conversation strategies by these teachers involves a balancing act between competing agendas within their workplace setting. In addition to mediating the strategies proposed by the research evidence base to suit their own early years workplace settings, in part by emphasising speech and language development, the teacher researchers identified a useful strategy, based on transportable identity, of 'stepping out' of being a teacher, for example by positioning themselves as a playmate or family member.

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“…Conversely, roles such as 'teacher' and 'student' are defined in relation to a specific situational context such as the language learning environment, and are therefore regarded as situated identities (Richards, 2006;Ushioda, 2009;Zimmerman, 1998). While the link between identity and feedback is not explicit in the above comments, the fact that students chose to mention such information while completing a task indicates that those aspects of their identity were a relevant consideration as they engaged with the task in question.…”

Section: Identity and Feedback In Distance Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model of factors affecting independent learners’ engagement with feedback on language learning tasks

Fernández-Toro

Hurd

2014

Distance Education

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In independent learning contexts, the effectiveness of the feedback dialogue between student and tutor or, in the absence of a tutor, the quality of the learning materials, is essential to successful learning. Using the voices of participants as the prime source of data through a combination of data-driven and conceptdriven approaches, this investigation attempts to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of the learning process as students express emotional reactions to the learning environment and in particular the written feedback from their tutors and the learning materials. To account for the different ways in which adult learners studying independently engage both cognitively and emotionally with external feedback, we propose a model based on four key drivers: goal relevance, knowledge, self-confidence, and roles. We conclude that only when these key drivers are aligned with each other can learners in independent settings engage with external feedback and learn from it.Keywords: feedback; independent learning; adult learners; distance learning, identity; motivation; roles; goal-relevance; feedback alignment; self-confidence, self-discrepancy; possible selves Subject classification codes: < tbc> 4 IntroductionFeedback plays a central role in any learning process, and is particularly important in independent settings (White, 2003). By this we mean learning contexts which include both self-access and distance learning, where the learner receives feedback from a tutor on assignments, has access to tutorials, generally online, but also relies on feedback in the materials in the form of model answers of answer keys. Hurd (2006) specifically mentions providing feedback as the most important role of the tutor, according to the distance learners who took part in her study. However, as Nicol (2010) points out, 'while the quality of the [feedback] comments is important, the quality of the students' interaction with those comments is equally, and perhaps more important' (Nicol, 2010, p. 503), Furnborough and Truman (2009)'s qualitative study underlines this point. They investigated the perceptions of beginner distance language learners and their use of assignment feedback from tutors identified different patterns of student engagement with external feedback: Groups A and B were positive about feedback, either seeing it as a learning tool which 'empowered' them to take on more responsibility for their own learning, or more generally as connected with a sense of achievement. Group C were hampered in their learning by doubts and anxieties about their own performance, lacked strategies to deal with their negative emotions and did not particularly value feedback from their tutors, showing an inability or unwillingness to take on board comments that were made on their work. The authors concluded that 'the attitudes and motivational factors affecting students in this group may warrant further investigation ' (Furnborough & Truman, 2009, p. 413). This is reflected in the findings of another investigation into corrective feedb...

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‘Being the Teacher’: Identity and Classroom Conversation

Cited by 193 publications

References 23 publications

Directed Motivational Currents: Using vision to create effective motivational pathways

Directed Motivational Currents: Using vision to create effective motivational pathways

Learning conversations: teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings

A model of factors affecting independent learners’ engagement with feedback on language learning tasks

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