I found something similar in my Cantonese schoolboys' data in Hong Kong
classrooms, too...
I first interpreted their utterances as self-talk... because it
seems that they didn't care whether anyone heard them or not... and there
was no follow-up responses to their utterances (which are very
interesting Cantonese-English verbal play, e.g., word puns)... but then my
supervisor argued that it might not be that straightforward... i.e., private
self-talk only...
For one thing he argued that I (the analyst) do not have
access to others' minds; nor do I have warrants to make my claim that
this is definitely "private self-talk"; second, he argued that this might
be a realm of resistance (meaning making fun of the official lesson material),
one between the public and the private in the classroom... i.e.,
"semi-publicly"...
He threw out these ideas to stimulate me to deepen my analysis...
I think it poses an interesting methodological and interpretive problem...
well, any ideas from you?
Angel
On Thu, 26 Oct 1995, Graham Nuthall wrote:
> Re:Agency discussion
> I am currently working on self-talk among students in elementary school
> classrooms. We have extensive recordings made from individual broadcast
> microphones worn by 10-11 year old students during the course of their days
> in school. From the audio recordings and accompanying viderecordings it
> seems that children drift in and out of self-talk and social talk as they
> go about their activities. There are, of course, apparent startings and
> endings to the sequences of comments, commentaries, self-instructions,
> chatter, and so on, but on the whole the sequences are fluid. Topics are
> interwoven with each other. This suggests a transactional relationship
> between the social and the individual, between talking to self and to an
> outer audience, a kind of feed-back loop, in which neither the individual
> or the social is the beginning or the end.
> This assumes, I think, that both the individual and the social are
> continuous processes, constantly interacting with each other. This
> continuous flow is interrupted from time to time with pauses, silences, but
> not beginnings and endings. That at least is the impression I get from
> studying this kind of data. Does that help suggest an alternative view of
> agency?
> Cheers, Graham
>
> Graham Nuthall
> Education Department
> University of Canterbury
> Private Bag 4800
> Christchurch, New Zealand
> Phone 64 03 3642255
> Fax 64 03 3642418
>
>
>