"Holding the Floor": What Happens to Learning When Students Are Denied Access to Conversational Floors

• In Event: Opportunity, Equity, and Inclusive Learning Environments

Abstract

During lesson beginnings, conversational floors are managed by teachers through the allocation of turns-at-talk. By maintaining first-turn rights to talk on the main floor, teachers are able to control a single interactional activity with only two participating parties, the teacher and the class as a single cohort. This paper examines the practices teachers use to dominate these turns-at-talk within the classroom learning environment. Conversation analysis of video and audio data establishes that, by holding the floor, teachers constrain opportunities for students to talk about tasks. Discussion addresses how students then demonstrate uncertainty as they move to independent work. The study maintains that minimisation of student rights to produce talk-in-interaction during lesson beginnings results in misapprehension around what to do next.

Author

• Stephanie Garoni, La Trobe University