Preference and embodiment in an oral preschool classroom

Abstract

This study extends research on question preference and, specifically, polar questions that prefer reverse-polarity responses. In the context of a deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) oral preschool classroom, I examine what I call teachers’ ‘No’-preferring questions (No-PQs), or polar questions that are grammatically positive yet exhibit a preference for students’ ‘No’-responses. Using Conversation Analysis, I focus on a collection of 25 cases of teachers’ No-PQs that present some behaviour or way of doing something for students to evaluate (e.g. Do we cry?). All instances of these No-PQs are co-produced with embodied conduct that help convey a negative stance towards the behaviour/way of doing something presented in the question and, resultantly, conditions students’ ‘No’-responses as preferred and aligning. 17 (68%) of these cases sequentially occurred when teachers were beginning classroom activities or invoking future events. In these environments, teachers’ embodied conduct served as demonstrations of a proposed behaviour or way of doing something and thus were treated by participants as instructional. In contrast, eight (32%) of these cases sequentially occurred while teachers were orienting to a student’s prior conduct as problematic. In this environment, teachers’ embodied conduct served as imitations of a student’s conduct and thus were responsive and treated by participants as disciplinary. I show how embodiment is a vital resource for resolving action ambiguity in interaction, which might be especially useful for D/HH children who may or may not rely more than hearing children on visual information for communication. Data are drawn from 25 hours of video-recordings in one oral classroom in the United States.