Blog 12...would you grab my sweater?

It's "drafty" writing, get it? Fun with puns! Moving on...

Right now, I’m working on piecing together the important part of the interview with the questions that I want to answer and some things I’ve already said in my notes – trying to use the interview to prove what I am trying to say. These are my notes so far. I think I will also use the Herring article (http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/politeness.1994.pdf) to help me explain computer culture and gender.

I need to talk about the relationship than women have with men in general as a society/culture, and then ask why A feels the way she does about men in relation to the internet.

• S    so how do you think you felt about computers (when you were young- in grade school/middle school).
• A    I loved it - I loved it because, when I discovered what AOL was - that I could email my friends, put in little pictures, photoshop - all those things - and like chat with people my age - which can be dangerous.  We didn't have a computer, but we had web tv.  Must have been in fifth grade.  And it was a slow connection and you could have a little keyboard, and you could, check your email, and you could also chat strangers - which was dangerous cause I think I talked to a pedophile I'm not sure, I I was in fifth grade I gave him my phone number when he called me I hung up I was so scared
• S    what did that experience do
• A    That was scary.

When asked about the internet, the very first thing she talks about is talking to a pedophile – she was unprompted for this type of admission, so for this information to appear so quickly in the interview shows how much impact it has had on A. Subconsciously, A must relate the internet to a scary place where old men stalk little girls. There are some serious issues that A has with trusting men and feeling inferior to men – this is the reason for her fear. On the internet, nobody can hurt you (physically) because they don’t know who/where you are – her fear is not of being emotionally hurt, but physically hurt. She would have to empower the man to hurt her (by giving her phone number, address, etc.) despite the fact that she clearly knew better, even as a child. Did she feel so fearful of men that she gave him her number anyway? What caused A to feel automatically inferior to this man on the internet, considering that she had little previous experience with the internet and no parental input on the subject?

What impact has culture had on her ideas about power (between men/women) on the internet and in real life? Or, how has culture affected A's ability to feel empowered in social situations? (the limit of "individualism" a woman can achieve in relation to media ideals (make-up, models, looking thin, etc.) and how this continues from real life to the internet via chatrooms and social networking.)

• S    making my eyes green, and fixing my cousin's nose to make it a little pointier, and then sending it to people  will all the photoshop, so we had a lot of fun
• S    oh you did (laughing) you did
• A    we would make ourselves a little thinner, and that's what we did though, I think half of our albums were photoshopped, so um

In this interactional unit, A tells S about using PhotoShop to alter her appearance and send the photos to people. Although A and her friends were doing something considered relatively normal, in the context of the internet, it shows A’s continued fear of men. She as an inherent need to appeal to men and to impress them, or to feel sexy around them; even though on the internet, the men that she encounters are strangers and are potentially dangerous. Why does A feel the need to alter her image? Perhaps this is because subconsciously, she feels inferior to men or even to other women. It seems unhealthy that a young girl (presumably in her early teens at the time she is discussing,) would feel the need to appear “thinner” to older men.

Based on her stories, does A really like the internet?

It appears as though throughout her life, A has only found that the internet is a place to have fear. Although she remains anonymous in chat rooms, which gives her the ability to have different personalities each day, she still feels as though she does not have power. Despite her claims that she loved the internet and felt a certain freedom (or an environment in which she did not have to abide by her parent’s rules,) the tone and word choice throughout the interview suggest the opposite; she was restricted by her fear and by the oppressive nature of the adult men that she would speak to.

• A    well this time it's someone I know and I think we lied about our age, too, so we said, every time we were 14 we'd at 3 or 4 extra years, we wanted to sound older (small laugh) and we would change our screen name so many times, cause we're like  'ahh, we want to have a new personality today'
• S    laughing
• A    we're like "pinkgirlloves whatever" or there, like our new boyfriends name, like Angelalovewhateverhisnameis - we changed it every week.   What can you do?

In this interactional unit, A further proves that she is defined by the men in her life. Her “new personality” is never defined by her thoughts or ideas, but by the name of her boyfriend at the time. She is so subservient to the male culture that she does not even realize this mistake.

Questions I haven’t yet worked with: When does A lose or gain power in this transcript and why? What morals does A have on the internet that may be different in person. I might use A's pronoun usage as part of the discussion about power - her inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for doing something "bad", but complete willingness to point fingers at those who are doing similar things (her younger sister or the pastor's son). A tends to dominate the conversation with S, but on the internet she presents herself as having been more timid - her constant reference to danger and fear, etc.

This one goes...to 11.

As I said in my original analysis: I'm interested in analyzing the discourse between A and S in terms of sexuality, gender,  the relationship than women have with men in general as a society/culture, the limit of "individualism" a woman can achieve in relation to media ideals (make-up, models, looking thin, etc.) and how this continues from real life to the internet via chatrooms and social networking.

More specifically, I will answer these questions:Why does A feel the way she does about men in relation to the internet? What impact has culture had on her ideas about power (between men/women) on the internet and in real life? Or, how has culture affected A's ability to feel empowered in social situations? Based on her stories, does A really like the internet? When does A lose or gain power in this transcript and why? What morals does A have on the internet that may be different in person?

I will use A's pronoun usage as part of the discussion about power - her inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for doing something "bad", but complete willingness to point fingers at those who are doing similar things (her younger sister or the pastor's son). A tends to dominate the conversation with S, but on the internet she presents herself as having been more timid - her constant reference to danger and fear, etc. What does this prove about the power of gender on the internet and in life?

10 - DA - Part 2

Excerpt 1

Ch        So in 2002, you were word processing, typing papers.  But in that math class you didn't want to use that math program

M         No

Ch        Do you remember why?  What were your feelings about it, can you remember that?

M         I guess thought that I couldn't do it, I didn't trust myself, I didn't trust the computer, I was afraid.

Ch        what was it about your self that you didn't trust?

M         That I could do it, I gu­ess I didn't think that I needed to use a computer in that way.

Ch        Yeah

M         I was willing to use it to type

Ch        yeah, and what was it that you didn't trust about the computer?

M         I guess that putting all of my information in there, and trusting the computer to, you know, analyze it, the way that I could have done it myself

Ch        So you didn't think it would ah,

m         represent what I wanted it to represent.

Ch        yeah.[ pause] now go back again, so what was it, what was your resistance, if you can remember

M         With the computer?

Ch        Why didn't you want to learn it?  The teacher says we're going to do the course this way, and you rather than learning the program they gave you, that was supposed to make it easier, and that's the course where they were going to teach you and support you to use it, you you did it your own way, and that  isn't just you, that's fairly typical, so let's do some reflecting on, what were your motives, I understand the fear thing, but let's think about where the fear came from, what was it, the one you identified, about not thinking that it was going to represent what you really wanted, is a big one, that's big, but can you think of any of the other things, maybe about you, or your past experiences or[J1] 

M         Maybe I didn't relate the computer to education in the right way, that I didn't think it was necessary

Ch        mm hm, and what do you mean, like, didn't relate the computer to education?

M         I guess I thought I could go through without - without having to do this.

Ch        It seemed like something extra?

M         Yeah, and even though I guess I wasn't you know comprehending that this was supposed to make my life easier, it made it more difficult

Ch        And also, I think I'm hearing, if I'm understanding you right, you felt that learning that program didn't really have anything to do with what you needed to learn for that course,

M         right[J2] 

Ch        that you'd learn more, or better, or what you wanted, by doing it on your own

M         mmhmm

Ch        So you didn't see the program as part of what it was important to learn

M         Mmhm

[I wish I had asked why at this point]

M         I was fighting it[J3] 

Excerpt 2

Ch        that's very interesting.  OK that was your school experience beginning that fall. So then when you took the computer class, how did you feel, it was obviously different.

M         It was different, and ah, it was a fun experience because the teacher was very good, very willing to work with use, she asked us where we were all, part of the class it was you know, twice a week, once we would meet in the classroom, and the other time we would meet in the computer lab, so it was the history of computers, so we learned about the history of computers, and then it was the actual hands on, how we would use it, so and we had to do projects, each project, we had to do an excel project, we had to do a word project, we had to do what else, what other programs are there, we did excel we did word, we did (thinking) what's it? slides[J4] ?

Ch        Powerpoint?

M         yeah powerpoint and ah,

Ch        frontpate?

M         no, I'm trying to think what else, but they were just projects that we had to turn in.  So ahm, some kids knew how to use the computer but they didn't know how to use it in the way she wanted it to be used, they would zip by all their work and not do it the correct way, and maybe I was in a better situation, because I knew nothing. about you know, computers, and this was my fear, entering the information and then you press a button, and I remember , you know, the laughed at me because you would press the button and everything on the screen would disappear and I'd be like "oh what happened" but there was a way to get it back, there was always a way to get it back, so it was a funny experience and it was ah, it was kind of taught me not to be afraid, to you know, to use the computer[J5] 

Ch        good, so this course was important, in getting you over your fear

M         yeah

Ch        What do you think it was that got you over it?

M         Ahm, I guess what could happen, you know? You know[J6] , what could happen, you put your work in you press a button, and you just - what's going to happen?

Ch        So you had some assurance that your work would be there.

M         Right

Ch        that you knew how, that you knew how to what?  What was it that you learned how to do?

M         well I learned, well when I was typing on word I didn't know a lot of the different things, to use, I learned how to ah how to format, I learned different fonts, I didn't know how to use any of the pull down bars, I didn't know all of those things the drop down menus I didn't know all those things were there, I didn't know about the undo button, that's my favorite button the undo button (laughing) go back, go forward.

Ch        so let's go back to how you learned word when you learned it by yourself,

you had something you needed to do, right? and then you'd ask someone what to do.  Did you do very much exploring on your own[J7] ?

M         No.  No if I had to type, I just went in and I typed I used it like a typewriter.

Ch        But you didn't go across the menu at the top and use the hover thing so

M         No I was afraid to.  I was afraid of breaking the computer. Or afraid of what would, I never explored, I went on, went to word, opened it up, typed what I had to type, and you know.

Ch        So your process of learning word was to go in and type, and then when you needed to do something that you didn't know how to do

M         Ask somebody

Ch        Ask someone, and then, how would they tell you, or what kind of directions did you get?

M         Ah, well like where us word.  I would type in Notepad, you know, and then maybe somebody showed me, or you turn it on, and I thought that was the only program and then somebody, don't you use word?  What do you mean?  You know, so , ahm, then I would go into word,

Ch        OK so, I guess then maybe that the discussions of the history of the computer and how they were organizred and what they did were important in that class

M         probably (but doesn't sound really convinced)

Ch        Do you remember

M         yeah cause when they, well it talked about, ah fear of computers, ah well and the realization that a computer has really been around for very a long time, and we talked about the internet and we learned how to find things, on the internet, and

Ch        What kinds of things - did they tell you how to get help on the internet?

M         I think so

Ch        Did you use that?

M         No

Ch        Ok, I'm trying to figure, cause, we've skipped all these other things about friends and growing up in school, so you had this one class and ah, so then, ah you bought a computer - how did things change when you bought a computer

M         I guess then I was little, my kids[J8]  used it a lot more than I did, and I really didn't explore at first, and then I became more comfortable with it, little by little, then after I took that computer class, I took an internet course for the first time, I said, well let me try this, now that I, well I had to trying to graduate from Middlesex, to fit into my schedule, and then that internet course kind of helped me to build up my confidence, cause we had to do everything on the computer, answer all these questions had the discussion group and we had to answer all the se questions and he the teacher. It was an English course and he set up all these links to different things on the internet that we could go to, so I kind of explored a little bit that way.

Ch        So the internet course helped you to learn how to explore?

M         I guess[10] so, how to research on how to use the computer for research

Ch        did it help you with exploring programs

M         not really programs, no

Ch        So how would you learn a program now?

M         Ask somebody

Ch        You still wouldn't go through the menu bar and see what each of the tools did, and you know because you can hover over it, or you wouldn't open them up and just play with it[J9] 

M         I might, but I would probably ask somebody

Ch        Would you read somethihg
M         I would read, yeah.  I would read the help things

---

 [J1]Ch is saying “TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO HEAR!!” She is shaping the conversation – she has ALL of the power. M is reluctant to really divulge any information or is perhaps unsure the purpose of this interview. Although, this question is a series of questions really, and is hard to respond to because Ch says so much.

 [J2]Was M scared of you, Ch? Ch is absolutely dominating this discussion. Ch knows the answers to these questions, and M knows that Ch knows – is this a conversation that they’d had previously, but are discussing again for the sake of the transcript? Is M just a pushover? Are these answers obvious from something M already said?

 [J3]Ch says 291 words.M says 150. Ch nearly doubles M.

 [J4]Woah, M, where did this come from? Talking about feelings rather than a situation, M totally takes the power in this section.

 [J5]The thing is that M is unclear – he is timid, maybe? I think he feels nervous around Ch. His speech is kind of excited, but rushed. It’s a lot of run-on sentences and thoughts that kind of run into each other.

 [J6]And where did all these “you know”s come from? Filler/pause in thought. M wants to say the right thing. Lots of “ah” and “uh” also.

 [J7]Ch is trying to take back control of the conversation here

 [J8]This whole time, I assumed that M was male for no real reason. Now, I think M is female.

 [J9]Ch is back to trying to get a particular answer again – she is trying to shape the conversation to go somewhere else – especially in relation to the comment she made earlier, “we’ve skipped all these other things…” – she had a clear outline of where she wanted the interview to go, and it totally didn’t work that way, which is strange considering the control she had in the first part of the transcript. How did Ch lose control and why? M doesn’t seem particularly assertive.
 [J10]M says "I guess" quite a lot - why? It's usually when Ch asserst herself and tries to shape the conversation. When M is given an opportunity to discuss things casually, and begins getting into some storytelling or becomes a little comfortable, he doesn't say "I guess". Perhaps he is uncomfortable with Ch's power.

I guess I would explore ideas of computer literacy through an adult learner's perspective based on how M talks about computers/technology. If there was a video of this event, I'd like to see how M responds to Ch, what their facial expressions show, etc. I think it would give more information the actual text, especially in section 1.

10 - DA - Part 1 - way too many notes

Excerpt 1

S    so how do you think you felt about computers (when you were young- in grade school/middle school).

A    I loved it - I loved it because, when I discovered what AOL was - that I could email my friends, put in little pictures, photoshop - all those things - and like chat with people my age - which can be dangerous.  We didn't have a computer, but we had web tv.  Must have been in fifth grade.  And it was a slow connection and you could have a little keyboard, and you could, check your email, and you could also chat strangers - which was dangerous cause I think I talked to a pedophile I'm not sure, I I was in fifth grade I gave him my phone number when he called me I hung up I was so scared

S    what did that experience do

A    That was scary. because

S    did you tell your mom

A    no I never told my mom or my dad

S    we'll be careful if we publish this (laughing)

A    I mean, I think I told them later on when I was in college, but it's dangerous, cause my parents weren't familiar with computers or web tv and I was a child exploring it -like - there was no restrictions, my parents didn't know how to put restrictions, they weren't too familiar with it.  It's only maybe three of four years ago that my mom learned how to use a computer so being a child, discovering it on your own could be really dangerous when there's chat rooms, and talking to people telling you that they're your age, but they're not[1]

S    Exactly

A    That was scary experience

S    But you figured that out, you knew to hang up when you got the call

A    Yeah, well as soon as I heard a deep voice [2]  I was like, that is not a kid, and like I think he asked me what I was wearing, and so I I was like, I'm wearing pajamas - bye, and I was like Oh my gosh, he's going to find where I live, my mom's [15] going to kill me, so I didn't go on WebTv for a long time [3]

S    Oh my.  So that was frightening. but it was also  - how did that change the way you used it then?

A    I was careful, and then I was strict on my younger sister and my brothers using the computer.  I also hogged the computer because I liked talking to my friends. But when my sister started going online I would check up on who she's talking to, I would look over, I would check the history, see what websites she went on [4]

S    and how old were you when you were doing that.

A    High school.  I was in high school.  I was more familiar with it. And we started learning more about computers from the in middle school in high school by that time I was able to email who ever I wanted, and research, very familiar with the internet [5][6]

Excerpt 2

S    so what did you and your friends do on the computer in a typical session - if you went over to your friend down the street [7]

A    check our emails, check our home pages, see if people left us messages, go in chat rooms and chat with our friends, exchange pictures with people that lived in our area that was our age, which could be dangerous[8], cause they could be imposters, we really didn't care

//

A    I think paint came with our computers,  I remember eight grade we were playing with like drawing our own little pictures, um changing the backgrounds and printing out whatever we did on paint, and then it evolved into photoshop, and making my eyes green, and fixing my cousin's nose to make it a little pointier, and then sending it to people[9] will all the photoshop, so we had a lot of fun

S    oh you did (laughing) you did

A    we would make ourselves a little thinner, and that's what we did though, I think half of our albums were photoshopped, so um

S    so how often did you use technology with your friends?

A    every time we hung out

S    every time, every time

A    every time, that was just our way of life afterwards

S    do you have a particular story about one one adventure with technology (laughing)

A    um, one time we were in a chat room, chatting, well my friend and I were like, oh lets go with that guy's sceen name[10] , and then, he was like do you have a picture, we sent a picture, we found out it was our pastor's son who was like 20, and we're like eeuew he's like an older brother, and then when he saw our picture he's like why are you doing that, why were you [11] sending pictures to strangers, and kind of got mad at us

S    oh that's really funny it backfired on both of you

A    it was kind of embarassing, we were like eeuuew, we [12] go to church with him, he's old,

S    that's really funny [13] how old were you then

A    we were freshman in high school

S    ok so you were about 14

16

A    yeah, and he was bout 20, and he was like our older brother, too, and we were like, so now we know how you pick us girls, all these girls you met were from the chat room[14]

S    that's really funny

A    that was a weird story

S    that's a funny story, and it's funny, it's like a reprise of the story when you were little, and you gave, but it's um

A    well this time it's someone I know and I think we lied about our age, too, so we said, every time we were 14 we'd at 3 or 4 extra years, we wanted to sound older (small laugh) and we would change our screen name so many times, cause we're like  'ahh, we want to have a new personality today'

S    laughing

A    we're like "pinkgirlloves whatever" or there, like our new boyfriends name, like Angelalovewhateverhisnameis - we changed it every week.   What can you do?

---

 [1] Speaker has some reservations – it takes three times to get the first story out.

 [2] [blue] Gender/fear – there are MEN on the internet – this is scary because she is female, because she is a young woman.(Who has power on the internet?) There are some serious issues that A has with trusting men and feeling inferior to men – this is the reason for her fear. On the internet, nobody can hurt you (physically) because they don’t know who/where you are – her fear is not of being emotionally hurt, but physically hurt – she would have to empower the man to hurt her (by giving her phone number, address, etc.) despite the fact that she clearly knew better, even as a child. Did she feel so fearful of men that she gave him her number anyway? Was she bullied by her own blossoming sexuality?

[3] [Green] Occurrences in individualism – looks at the internet as a “new horizon” – a new world, a place to explore where she does not have rules. The internet is not exciting because she can change her profile name, but because nobody is telling her what to to do. This is probably her first experience of doing something on her own because she was so young.

[4] A learns from her mistakes – and feels that she should pass these lessons on to her younger sister. She has power over her sister – she mentions that she has brothers, but specifies checking on her sister – they probably have a close relationship, A definitely acts as a secondary mother to her sister regarding the internet – because her parents don’t know how to use the internet. She is not as concerned with her brothers, does not mention that she was checking on them at all. Overall, A thinks that the internet is a scary place for woman/girls, the fear exists for women based on the occurrence of male predators rather than female ones.

[5] Despite her usual inclination to take over the conversation, S says very little in the first part of this interview. It is clear that A has the power – S is interested in what she is saying and wants to know more. She is listening, and her questions do not shape the conversation. Instead, she asks for more information about the things A is already talking about. A’s commentary shapes the conversation – she talks about the pedophile situation, and then talks about how her parents are inexperienced with the internet. S asks about how that changed the way she used the web, which asserted power and changed the topic slightly – introduced a new idea.

[6] [Yellow] Occurrences of “fear” or danger. A clearly equates the internet (at least in part,) to a dangerous or scary place.

[7]I assume that because there is a second excerpt, there is a whole conversation between the two that had little to do with the topic or would not be helpful for this DA. This shows that there is a relationship between S and A, at least somewhat – they are comfortable speaking to each other. The relationship is also obvious in the way that A takes over the conversation, considering that S is so prone to make power moves during an interview.

[8]A talks about how dangerous the internet is several times – first in her childhood story, and then mentions watching over her little sister, and then the dangers when she was in high school. I find this odd because she was unprompted – S simply asks her how she felt about the internet. A says that she loves it – but then talks about how scary it can be, over and over again. She loves something she fears, perhaps she likes the internet because it’s adrenaline, it’s a rush..

[9] [Grey] This is a normal body image issue with a teenager, but in the context of the internet, it shows A’s continued fear of men -  a need to appeal to them, etc.

[10]Again, about men! The internet is a place to interact with men, to meet men, to be fearful of men, that makes A uncomfortable around men, even as she has grown older and learned more about it.

[11]Uses “you” often – when talking about things she knows she shouldn’t have been doing – she shifts the responsibility for doing something she knows was wrong.

[12]Uses “we” rather than I – she is still doing something she oughtn’t, but shares the blame with her friends. “We” is more confident than “I” – A is supported by her friends, she only feels confident when she relates her actions to things that she and her friends were doing, rather than something just she was doing.

[13]With A’s confidence in this part of the discussion, S finds her funny – and each time S mentions that she thinks it’s funny, it gives A more confidence and she divulges more information.
[14] Despite the amount of time A spends on the internet with her friends looking at and talking to guys, she still judges the pastor's son for doing the same thing. What is the difference between her and her friends using the chatrooms and the son doing it? Is this another gender issue, or does she separate herself even though they were likely doing the same thing?
[15] Relationship with her parents/family - respect for her parent's views - did she take her parents morals with her onto the internet?

 I think it's clear that I want to do my DA on this transcript by the amount I have written already, haha. I'm interested in analyzing in terms of sexuality, gender,  the relationship than women have with men in general as a society/culture, the limit of "individualism" a woman can achieve in relation to media ideals (make-up, models, looking thin, etc.) and how this continues from real life to the internet via chatrooms and social networking.

9 part 1

Asked students to rank their ability with software. Background – B is a professional gamer, basically. This is the last section of an interview where B talks about the history and background about software. CH wants B to think about how gaming software is relevant in the context of his education/academic situation.
Sociolinguistic Method (interactional units grouped by color)

Ch    I wanted to talk a little, you  talk about yourself as a hardware expert, you said software novice, although I bullied you into being competent, what software do you know how to use?
B          you know, what everyone else knows how to use, word, frontpage, powerpoint, excell, spreadsheet things[1]
Ch        so it's interesting, games aren't really considered software are they?
B          they are -
Ch        so you know lots of software
B          yeah, but it's just games (laughing)[2]
Ch        so what kind of crossover did you find between learning the games and learning the software everyone needs to know?  Obviously it wasn't real hard for you to learn, frontpage
B          I think it's because I had ah, background exposure
Ch        what background?
B          Well, just in learning how to learn a program, I just see buttons, tool tips and ah I make a go at it, the scissors mean I can cut in here, and I can just cut and drag and drop - these a simple things everyone knows, I guess the only reason I can pick up learning a program is that I just have that knack, no other way to explain it. [3]
Ch        that's literacy - you have the basic tools, the right basic set of assumptions for how to read, understand, interpret a program.  And so what I'm looking for is the connection between all the gaming experience you have and your ability to do that with the applications - the academic applications
B          well like a lot of games, in the beginning, there's menus.  You don't just start playing.  There's menus, you get to customize your decal your spray, clothes,
laughing
It's not all playing the game it's a lot of process to prepare for it, there's like box, scripts, you practice it, and you're not playing with other people, you're just like fooling around.[4]
Ch        OK so all those things - same kinds of processes, same kinds of moves - so navigating menus is something you learned from games that can carry over - anything else?
B          I think that is the main thing, I can't connect a First person shooter with Microsoft word, that would be a real stretch
Ch        how about file systems and gaming spaces?
B          you know, you're right, because the game, the games are still software, and they're still files, so there are certain organization of a game that is different from regular file.[5]
Ch  - so what's another thing - so playing those games when you were a little kid set you up to be able to disentangle that DOS system more easily than your stepfather, so what were you doing?
B          like I was navigating through menus
Ch        you got used to trial and error
B          I wasn't being graded - there's no - all right man, let's pass this class you've got to
Ch        so you're completely comfortable with messing it up and starting over.
B          Oh yeah[6]
Ch        I think the print generation has a lot of hangups with that - what's something else
B          there's a song by Natasha Ben ? I hear it on the radio - it goes like, she says in her song, that we're taught not to make mistakes, we really can't live that way

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 [1]Interactional Unit 1 – Sets up focus of this section of the interview

 [2]Interactional Unit 2 ends at laughter, followed by a question which changes the direction of the conversation/focus slightly, this gives more detail to the previous question, deepens the meaning of their conversation. CH is intentionally creating new interactional units and coercing her subject to answer the way she wants.
B establishes that games don’t count as real software or real knowledge, he is not a software expert because he only knows games (Ch begins to push her agenda).

[3]Set of Interactional Units – Two questions are asked by Ch, but the second is a clarification of the answer from the first question. The focus is still the same.
Ch wants to make the relationship between games and software obvious.
B again minimizes his ability. “simple things”/”have a knack” – new idea!

[4]CH interprets and explains the new idea – literacy. She gives definition and changes the vocabulary. Her direct statement changes the conversation.
So far, CH has all of the power – she is introducing ALL of the topics. This is more of a lecture than an interview.

[5]New set of interactional units - New idea- connection between video games and computer programs. Ch asks the first question to try to get B to make a connection, and when he does not, she clarifies to get the answer she wanted. Ch maintains the power with this move.

[6]New interactional unit begins with Ch changing the topic once more – she reverts back to an earlier part of the conversation to tie it all together

Presentation - Discourse Analysis

Jen Theesfeld

Discourse Analysis of Mandy Smith, Page 79

1. What are the essay's main points?

·         “One implication of (the research she has done/agrees with) is that describing what happens in a classroom literacy event requires attention to the moment-by-moment unfolding of the event and how people build on each other’s actions and uses of language” (80).

·         “Since my interest was on how the teacher and students together created learning opportunities, I focused attention on what counted as knowledge and how the teacher and students created opportunities to construct knowledge.

·         In brief, this meant looking for how the teacher and students built on each other’s message units in a way that defined what counted as knowledge in the lesson and on opportunities to extend the knowledge already presented.

·         In some cases, this meant examining how the teacher and students defined what counted as reading and as evidence for an argument or claim” (81).

·         Basically, Smith is looking at how teachers and students react to each other during a classroom discussion and wants to prove that the IRE (interaction, response, evaluation) method is effective because it adapts to the people involved (teacher and students).

2. What theories does it draw from (the authors should mention them straight out)?

·         Theories in sociolinguistic ethnography - Gumperz, 1986; Hymes, 1974

·         Theories in interactional sociolinguistics – Bloome et al., 2005; Green & Wallet, 1981

·         Recent discussions of discourse analysis that bridge the micro and macrocontexts of student lives in and out of classrooms – Bloome & Clark, 2006; Gee, 1996

3. What "moves" does the analysis make (in terms of the particular features of language it focuses on, and the particular frames it uses = micro -macro correlations, socio-historical context, etc)?

·         Interactional Unit 1 – “Warranting claims with evidence from the text is the explicit goal of the lesson”

·         “an extended form of the traditional classroom conversational structure of teacher initiation followed by student response followed by teacher evaluation (IRE).”

·         IRE is adaptable (student and teacher may both adapt)

·         Some criticize IRE (encourages only short responses at best), but the transcripts disprove them – IRE allows “extended response and higher level thinking and argumentation” – shows that most conversational structures are adaptable

·         Conclusion (unit 1) – it is important to find out how teachers and students are adapting conversational structures

·         Interactional Unit 2 – “looking at Interactional Unit 1 in the context of Interactional Unit 2”

·         Rather than a basic IRE, the teacher asks questions to which there may not be only one answer – instead, she asks ambiguous questions that allow the students to gain different perspectives. The teacher solicits claims from the students, but then asks them to provide evidence to back up the claims they have made.

·         Opportunities from Unit 2 requires the examination of unit 3 – it’s important to use the entire conversation to gain from the context, to get a feel for what the subjects are really saying

·         Unit 3 allows questions to be “refracted” – examined and recast in a different way or from someone else’s perspective. The teacher selects a different student for “permission to talk”, providing another set of learning opportunities.

·         However, the student continues her opinion and changes the direction of the conversation without prompting (provides her own evidence and feedback, refers back to the book)

·         The book wasn’t the main focus of the discussion, but merely a “prop for initiating such discussion”

·         Although the student initiates her own conversation, the teacher still validates her and continues with the student’s point – this proves that IRE is adaptable – none of the comments were seen as interruption

·         Line-by-line analysis of this interaction helps research what happens in classrooms and how learning opportunities are created

4. How is this essay organized (name what kind of material is in each section)?

                Smith organizes the essay chronologically, based on the transcript of the classroom conversation. Each section picks apart a particular piece of the conversation. She uses the findings from the first section to build the second, proves the second section by referring back to the first, and then proves the third section by referring back to her findings from the first two sections.  She actually doesn’t analyze 3/4 of the transcript, because she has already proven her point and/or they do not fit her specifications for what she wants to prove.

                She constantly restates her hypothesis in the context of the section of the transcript she is analyzing. By continually referring back to her point and tying it in with whatever she is saying, she makes her adaptation of the transcript more important than the transcript itself.

5. What is this kind of discourse analysis good for? or - what kind of questions can it answer?

                Smith wants to prove that IRE is an ideal teaching method. Her discourse analysis focuses only on how the conversation proves what she wants to say, and ignores ways which it does not. This type of discourse analysis is good for discussing new ideas, such as controversial or new teaching methods, which are better explained in the context of the environment in which they would be used. If worded correctly, I would assume that this type of discourse analysis could answer any kind of question regarding discourse. It’s like a lawyer calling someone to questioning at a trial – by asking certain questions, they can make a person admit to something they didn’t do, or didn’t want to admit to, or provide evidence that would otherwise have been kept secret. Smith only wants to prove one thing, so she ignores a large part of the transcript to describe something she is interested in. I think that this type of analysis is necessary sometimes, but would probably be questioned by other researchers quite a bit because it is so particular to the person’s ideology and is so obviously biased.

Blog 8

Ch        OK so let's go back to your schools and tell me a little bit about what they were like.  So what was your, you know, talk about, about what the school was like what the building was like, what the kids were like, and how it made you feel about learning, particularly reading and writing.  SO let's start with Roosevelt

L          Number 10 school is more like in an urban area. Minorities, you know.  Hispanic and black people.  And you know, a lot of bad kids a lot of gangs, so my block where I used to live, it was, you know I  couldn't go to the corner, cause it was, you know, a bunch of gangs, so it was really like, the 10 school, I don't know, like your friends[J1], you have to watch who they were, because, you know, it was really dangerous so

Ch        even when you were little? 78 (sounds surprised)

L          (matter of factly) yeah, {street name?} downtown, that's where the danger is, back in the day, now it's a little better, but thank god my teachers were always really good.  I was, I started kindergarten in the ESL program, you know they like teach you English, since I grew up in a Spanish speaking house and you know, at first I had a hard time reading and writing, but then first grade I took a test, so I could be in an all English class, and you know the test was all reading and asking questions, and you have to write it all, like a picture prompt, and I passed it.  So, second grade was a all English class, and it was, you know, it was easy for me.  I can say I didn't struggle too much, reading and writing.  With math it's another story , but English, is O - I was doing OK with it.

Ch        (Laughing) math is another story

L          Yeah. 

Ch        So how did you feel, what was the test like?  Were you scared when you took   87 what was

L          Oh yeah.  I was so scared.  I was like, Ma I'm not going to pass it, I know I'm not, cause you know I was taking it with a lot of friends, and they were integrated, so they go - you know you can't really study, yeah, they practice everything in class but it was like my first time taking an actual like test, you know, that you have to {words} for an hour, I was like oh my god, it was really like nerve shocking, but I guess I did good, cause I passed it.

Ch        Do you remember taking the test

L          Actually not, I really don't.  I remember like the next, what was like [J2] next month when they got the results.  I got a letter like, you're moved to a new room, and I had no idea.  I'm like, I have a new teacher it's bad and I already have friends in my old class, so when I walked in I remember it was like Mr. Marshall, and I didn't know anyone, and I'm like oh - that's what I get for passing the test. 

Ch        laughing

L          I have no friends (97)

Ch        Did your friends pass it

L          No.  I had like one boy that I knew, but as my close friend, Paula, she was also Colombian, she didn't pass it and she stayed in ESL until like 4^th grade.

Ch        What was that like for you.

L          Well I guess, you know [J3] it was a new experience, I met a lot of friends I still talk to now in the class, so you know, for the better.

S          OK so you met a lot of friends you still talk to now in the new class.

L          Yeah, in the new class. I got a new group of friends.  It was good[J4] .

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[J1][Pink]A big concern of hers is her friends – in her neighborhood, in school, in her new class, etc. She represents herself as someone who does not want to be alone/desires to be part of a group. She relates everything she says to her friendships that surrounded or involved in each situation.

[J2] [Green] She says “like” when she is talking about something she feared – the word appears with greater frequency when she described the conversation she had with her mother and when she moved into the new classroom. While proud of herself for passing the test, she is modest about her achievement and downplays it – saying “like” is her pause that makes the story less important. The word "like" occurs 18 times in L's part of this interview. 16 of those occurrences take place during the time where she is telling her story, and only 2 when she is speaking confidently about the present. While I recognize that "like" is a common colloquial, it seems that for L it goes beyond her regional dialect/word use and uses it specifically when she feels as though she is exposing her emotions or is not representing herself as strong and outgoing (seemingly her normal facade).

[J3][Yellow] She says “you know” when she is talking about her inadequacy and her emotions. (15 times in this interview.) Her hesitation (agency) shows that she feels apprehensive to tell her story. Despite being an outspoken person, she is somewhat shy talking about something that shows imperfection.

[J4] [Underline] She ends all of her statements with short, succinct little statements that take away the gravity of many of her situations. Despite the bad situation, she always notes that good came out of it. All of her problems are always solved by the end of the paragraph.

Blog 7

1) In class, we learned the main parts of discourse analysis: Identify, Classify, Count. We talked about the four children and what their actions and words really meant, and what we can learn from them. We discussed the power hierarchy, who had power and why, and how the children represent themselves. Discourse analysis gives us an opportunity to learn from actions rather than just the words. It also gives us an opportunity to analyze subtext, tone, and meaning in writing and communication. Dr. Chandler said something that I really liked - to paraphrase, "unless you take the time to be conscious of the ideology you subconsciously write, you may be presenting an ideology you don't even subscribe to".

2) I think that the most difficult thing about studying discourse analysis is the way it is discussed. For me, it seems like I have to continually remind myself what the terminology means as we are discussing things and as I read about them. The text and the discussions are very "jargon-y", so despite the fact that I understand the meaning of the words being used, they are more difficult to understand because of their context. Does that make sense? For example, Bloome says, "discourse analysis studies need to acknowledge both micro level and macro level processes" and I have to read that as "[the study of language use] needs to acknowledge both [one on one conversation] and [group or community conversations]." I suppose that as I become more familiar with the terminology, it will be much easier, but for now it can be very confusing.

3) I actually liked that we were re-assigned the same reading after discussion this week. Talking about the chapters as a class gave some insight about discourse analysis that I didn't have the first time through. The second reading was much clearer (although still a little confusing,) and I feel like I got more out of it. I like the idea of revisiting the same information after discussion.

Blog 6

Discourse is the use of language and methods of communicating within a community. Discourse analysis is the study of these communications in order to gain a deeper understanding of the way people communicate or of the community. As the Bloome book points out, "many authors of discourse analysis studies either do not specify their definition of discourse or discourse analysis or give vague definitions. They assume an unarticulated shared understanding of underlying constructs and a logic-of-inquiry." In my 4 years as an English major, I have heard the word "discourse" defined about 100 different ways. This can be a bit confusing, and this particular text doesn't seem to be a whole lot of help. Thankfully, I know we will go over it in detail in class, which will help me understand a little better.


I might use discourse analysis as a research method if I wanted to find what styles of teaching have the most profound and lasting effect on students. As a future professor, it is important for me to know how the language I use is interpreted by my students so that I can alter my discourse to have the most impact. As a student, I am already doing this type of research. With each new semester, I am presented with new professors whose methods of discourse I consciously or subconsciously analyze, and by the end of the semester (or sometimes far earlier,) I am able to decide what I liked and didn't like about their teaching methods. From that information, I can decide what I think I should or shouldn't do when I am teaching. I also must pay attention to the comments of my classmates, and observe their concerns. Do they find a professor boring or interesting? Are the things the professor talks about relevant? Is the information presented clearly? All of these questions, and many more, help me decide the effectiveness of the professor's discourse, and will one day be the same questions that my students ask.