The secret multimodal life of IREs: Looking more closely at representational gestures in a familiar questioning sequence

Abstract

Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA) and an embodied approach to social interaction, this article examines how instructors use representational gestures in Initiation-Response-Evaluation/Follow-up (IRE/F) sequences during teacher-led, whole-class discussions. The data consist of four, 2-week-long programming courses for middle and high school students (grades 5–11). In these courses, instructors use representational gesture to perform a variety of functions during Initiation and Evaluation/Follow-up turns. In Initiations, instructors use representational gesture to cue students about the (1) product, (2) method, or (3) format of the answer they are looking for. During Evaluation/Follow-up turns, instructors use representational gesture to be responsive to multimodal components of students’ contributions: They (1) repeat students’ gestures, (2) add new gestures to student responses, and (3) expand students’ gestures by adding additional gesture phrases. These findings demonstrate new ways gesture serves as a dialogic resource in the public, interactive co-construction of classroom knowledge.