Today, I shall discuss discourse practices in the sessions. Due to the nature of my observation, the conversations are almost exclusively one-on-one, which means that there is not as much chance for such things as turn-taking and casual conversation in general. Most of the discussions work to improve relevance in directive conversation. For example, one of the students will answer, "I don't know" to every single thing he is asked. Ms. J will then tell him to use his thinking, but it takes a while, and often some choices of what to answer, to get him to answer. The sorts of questions asked in this setting are usually directive and emphasizing recall or etiquette: either the child must remember something that has just happened, and state it back to the therapist, or he must remember to ask for something before doing it.
Many of the students have difficulty speaking clearly, so the therapists have a system of "face referents" (my phrase, not theirs) to cue the students in how to pronounce their words. For example, if Billy were trying to pronounce "fake," the therapist would point to her lips, and then stroke her throat to indicate to him how to position his mouth when he is saying the word; Billy would then imitate the referents to his own face as he says the word.
In the group session that I was observing, the occupational therapist has an interesting way to work on expressive communication, to get the children more aware of their bodies. After jumping around in the gym for a while, the children are asked to "check their engine." This prompts them to check in with their own body, deciding whether they are just right, are getting tired, or still have too much energy. That is one of the reasons that I love my place of observation - having the occupational and speech therapists work together emphasize the importance of mind AND body: the two are inextricably linked, and it is important to work with both of them together.
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Wow-I like that the therapists ask the students to “check their engine.” This is definitely an example of a directive statement dealing with illocutionary acts. The therapists are asking the students something, which is almost a polite demand. Concerning the discourse markers, what do you find dealing with the conversational floor? Do the students overlap with the therapists? Do the students ask many questions, or is there a lot of silence? It seems like this experience for you has been pretty fun this semester so far. I think it would be interesting as well to see what goes on in there…Seems to me that the minimal responses are to be become syntactical for making complete sentences for these students…
ReplyDeleteI like what you said in the beginning of the post about how the student has to restate what has just happened in conversation. This could be a good tool for me to use when doing one-on-one with some of my students! A reoccurring theme is that we will be discussing a homework question they need to answer and I will explain it to them, ask them if they understand, and then they will agree that they do. However, when I ask them to answer the question for me then, I find that they cannot and I have to re-explain the question(s)! I think I will try some variation of this next time in my practicum. :)
ReplyDeleteDanii - on the note about restatement: I agree! It's a great way to test their level attention. Also a great way to earn better tips when waitressing, but that's another story :)
ReplyDeleteDavid - No, the students don't really overlap the therapists, though they do often tend to start losing focus and moving away from the therapist. Silence...yes, there is a good amount of silence when the students are not being prompted to answer questions. There was one day when Mr. "I don't know" just spontaneously started talking about a game that he'd played with someone one day - the therapist stepped back and let him have the floor until he was done - I thought it was really cool that she encouraged him speaking!
Not only is it a good way to check their attention level, its a good way to make sure you understood what the student said, and the student understand what you said.
ReplyDeleteI think that restating, is always a good thing. Restating when it comes to English as a second language students, is important.
Its a good way to make sure that you as a the teacher heard their question and answer correctly, and that they are sure that they are heard by you the teacher, and the class.
Some students are very shy when they answer, so restating when they say is a good way for them to be heard by the class.
About silence, I think silence for a few minutes isn't such a bad idea. It gives time for the students to gather thier thoughts, and sometimes, some students require more time to gather their answer together than others. I think recognizing which students need more time to gather their answers is an important thing, because otherwise you might get "I don't know" when in fact they do know but weren't quite together to answer the question first. Sometimes picking that student last, will get a profound answer from the student.