7.4.1 Contexts of Four Classroom Discourse Texts
Table 7.9 below summaries the contexts of four seminars.The description of the settings and the activities of these four seminars are presented as follows.In the contexts of four video recorded seminars, all students are asked to review and discuss the theories and concepts that have been learned in the previous lectures.The teacher-student interaction is carried out in all the four seminars, though with different teaching and learning goals.What should be emphasised again here is that the transcription of classroom discourse excludes the activities of video watching and student-to-student group discussion, but only focuses on the moments of teacher-student interaction.
Table 7.9 Summary of the contexts of the four seminars
Continued
In the Year 1 classroom, there is one foreign teacher, 13 Chinese students and one foreign student.All the students sit in a circle.The teacher opens the seminar by stating the focused themes for discussion:sex, gender and media.The students are then asked to critically review and discuss these theories and concepts that have been learned in the previous lecture.While watching seven videos, the students are asked to interpret the relevant ideas reflected in these videos, and meanwhile, to answer the four questions listed on the handouts.After each video showing, the students have three minutes or so to discuss each of the four questions with the peers sitting next to them.Each of the students talks about certain things in the videos, though with different contributions.Then, the teacher leads the whole class’s discussion to reflect on the videos and to answer the four questions.In this teacher-student interaction process, the foreign student much more actively expresses opinions, although all the Chinese students participate in information exchange.The seminar ends after the whole class watches the last video.As to the teaching goals, the teacher considers that the students are new to the disciplinary learning; therefore one of the important teaching motives is to encourage them to ‘get talk on the concepts and theories covered in the lecture’.At the same time the teacher explains that Year 1 students need to become familiar with the disciplinary knowledge; therefore, he expects the students to ‘engage in critical thinking and self-expression of the concepts and theories covered in the lecture’ and ‘apply the ideas in analysing the advertisement’ (Interview, 2014).
In the Year 2 classroom, there is one foreign teacher and 20 Chinese students.All the students sit in three rows.The teacher orients the teaching and learning, focusing on reviewing and discussing the theories and concepts of feminism, gender stereotyping, racism and media, which the students have learned in the previous lecture.Specially, as the teacher explained in the email to me, the teaching goals of the seminar are to ‘expect students to engage in critical discussions of the content covered in class, making use of relevant examples where appropriate.I want to encourage them to apply the ideas covered in lectures’ (Email from the Year 2 teacher, 2014).All participants in the classroom watch eleven videos, and there is no group discussion conducted.The teacher asks certain questions in terms of the ideas reflected from these videos, but at least half of the students keep silent.In terms of the duration of the seminar, it is supposed to be 50 minutes or so, but lasts for about 86 minutes.
In the Year 3 classroom, there is one foreign teacher, five Chinese students and three foreign students.The five Chinese students and three foreign students sit in two groups respectively.I was told by a Chinese student that some students are absent because it is Friday.While assigning the handouts to the student participants, the teacher requires them to think about the relationship between ethics, propaganda and PR that have been explained in the previous lecture.They watch the first video together, and then are asked to work in groups and interpret these themes in relation to the video.When the teacher finishes the registration check, he joins in the two groups’ discussion respectively.Then, the teacher leads the whole class’s discussion to review and expand the students’ viewpoints.Except for one Chinese student and one foreign student, all the other students express opinions.The seminar ends after the whole class watches the second video.As to the teaching goals stated, the teacher expects the students to:
1) ‘learn, understand and apply the theories in analysing concrete examples;
2) be able to reflect critically on these theories.’ (Interview, 2014)
In the Year 4 classroom, there is one foreign teacher and 12 Chinese students.Before the class, the students sit in three groups.The teacher states the primary task of the seminar is to interpret new media technologies in the politics of the Western world, by focusing on the question of how and to what extent new media has transformed politics in the Western world.Each of the three groups then chooses a topic from the list and interprets it from their own viewpoints.After 11 minutes of group discussion, one representative from each group expresses his or her understanding under the facilitation of the teacher.While probing into the participants’ opinions, the teacher invites the other groups to be involved, expressing their extended points of view.As for the teaching goals of the seminar, the teacher replies in the email as follows:‘Each seminar is related to the lecture that took place in the same week.The seminars are an opportunity for the students themselves to explore some of the themes that I raised in the lectures.Therefore, I would expect the students to:
1) understand the key themes;
2) be able to critically engage with those themes, even where they disagree with me;
3) try to conceptualise examples from their own experience (For example, if we are talking about social media, they might discuss their own use of social media in relation to the theories that they have learned).’ (Email from the Year 2 teacher, 2014)