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Article
Indirect Challenges and Provocative Paraphrases: Using Cultural Conflict-Talk Practices to Promote Students' Dialogic Participation in Whole-Class Discussions
Research in the Teaching of English
  • Michael Sherry, University of South Florida
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2014
Disciplines
Abstract

In this article, the author offers a sociolinguistic discourse analysis of two conversations in which a preservice teacher encouraged her urban, 10th-grade students to disagree. The author's analysis demonstrates the positive effects of the teacher's use of indirect challenges and provocative paraphrases -- features of the African American sociable conflict-talk practice known as The Dozens -- to promote collaborative disagreement during whole-class discussion. The author argues that teachers can promote collaborative disagreement in whole-class discussions by appealing to students' home-cultural disagreement practices, which may already overlap with argumentation practices valued in school settings. The author calls for further research into the influence of teachers' and students' out-of-school discourses on discussions characterized by collaborative disagreement -- a practice that is essential to ELA curricula and to participation in a democratic, literate society.

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Citation / Publisher Attribution

Research in the Teaching of English, v. 49, issue 2, p. 141-167

Copyright National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and Communication Nov 2014

Link to the publisher: http://www.ncte.org/journals/rte/issues/v49-2

Citation Information
Michael Sherry. "Indirect Challenges and Provocative Paraphrases: Using Cultural Conflict-Talk Practices to Promote Students' Dialogic Participation in Whole-Class Discussions" Research in the Teaching of English Vol. 49 Iss. 2 (2014) p. 141 - 167
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael-sherry/4/