Humour as an Interpersonal Resource in Adult Numeracy Classes

Abstract

This paper reports on a research project which investigated the role of language in adult numeracy classrooms. The study brought the resources of systemic functional linguistics, as well as constructs derived from other traditions such as conversational analysis and ethnomethodology that have examined classroom discourse, to bear on the adult numeracy classroom context, asking how are these classrooms constructed in discourse? Drawing on the work of Lemke, we characterise the adult numeracy classroom as a mixed-mode discourse site, in which a number of semiotic modes interact in complex ways to make mathematical meanings. We look at how these classrooms are constructed interpersonally, in particular how features like humour are used to establish and maintain tenor relations and do 'identity work' in the adult classroom.