Signaling Learner Stance through Multimodal Resources

Stance refers to a display of a socially recognized epistemic or affective attitude toward a referent or proposition (Ochs, 1993). Although this display of attitude can be performed linguistically, paralinguistically, and non-verbally (Du Bois, 2007), it has primarily been explored in terms of linguistic strategies (use of reference terms, constructed dialogue, repetition, etc.) that can contribute to the process of socialization and the expression and construction of sociocultural identities and relationships. Considering the significance stance can have in the process of socialization and identity construction and expression, in this paper the author explores stance in an "educational" setting. Specifically, she is interested in how a learner's stance toward instructional tasks might be uncovered analytically and how it might shape learner participation and engagement. The author conducted a close, turn-by-turn analysis of the data, drawing from the techniques of conversation analysis. The data come from an hour-long video recording of a third-grade sheltered instruction English Language Arts (ELA) class at a public school in the United States. The participants are the teacher, Fred, and his four ESL students--Anthony, Melissa, Alonso, and Brendon (all pseudonyms). During the recorded session, each student needed to write three dialogues between him/herself and three different people in his/her life on the topic of the student's chosen future profession. The author shows that a learner's stance toward a class task is signaled multimodally--not just through linguistic but also through paralinguistic and embodied cues--and propose that overall low participation can also signal an implicit negative stance toward a task or a disengagement from it.