English Language Teaching in its Social Context

SAFE-TALI< 23114151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647the elements of the union setStudentA: (two[ threeMrs Gumbi: [ that isStudentA:Mrs Gumbi:StudentA:StudentA: 1-Mrs Gumbi:IfourMrs Gumbi: Ifoui-StudentA: lfive1fii.eMrs Gumbi:StudentA: Is&Mrs Gumbi:I&StudentA:Mrs Gumbi: leipht and eight . . .what type of set is this now . . . it is i [ union sctStudents: [ union sctlu aMrs Gumbi:union sct because we have been king now at the elementsof set B togher with the elements of &t [ CStudents: [ CMrs Gumbi: [to form oncset which called what . . . a union [ setStudents: [ setMrs Gumbi: rememberwhen you j&t the union set the elements for for the union setdo not rcpeat those elements which are written twice do you get thatStudents: I=Mrs Gumbi: I& not repeat them list them once OKStudents: 1-Mrs Gumbi: I& you understand thisStudents: IpMrs Gumbi: I& you understand thisStudents: 19What is immcdiatcly striking about this cpisodc (as also the lesson as a wholc) is thecoincidencc of tcachcr volubility and student (particularly individual student) taciturnity,charactcristics of interactions in the formerly segregated schools for black people in SouthAfrica, which, as I noted above, have been commented upon by many observers. Mrs Gumbiin this extract, as elsewhere in the lesson, does most of the tallung. Indeed, of thc total 19minutes duration of thc lesson as a wholc, fivc seconds short of 16 minutes consists ofteacher talk. Also the students’ opportunities to talk (with one or two cxccptions) arcreduced to group chorusing.Volubility on the part of the teacher, which Scollon and Scollon (1 983) regard as asolidarity strategy, and taciturnity on the part of the students, which they regard as adeference strategy, is consistent with the culturally-specific intcractional stylcs I had foundevidence for in my analysis of interethnic encounters between Zulu-English spcakcrs andSouth African (white) English speakers (Chck 1985).This finding might, therefore, be seenas lending credence to the notion that the interactional styles employed in KwaZulu