The Social Construction of Key: Analyzing Relations in Daily Classroom Life

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-8 - Negotiating Relationships

Abstract

Investigating the linguistic resources that students and teachers use to negotiate relations with one another, this paper examines Hymes’ (1974) notion of key-- the tone, manner or spirit of an act. Drawing upon a larger microethnographic study of first grade classroom, this paper presents a way to theorize the social construction of key. Close examination and transcription of the video data evidenced the importance of the use of keyed verbal and nonverbal contextualization cues (Gumperz, 1982) to negotiate key shifts. This work enables an understanding of the nature of how people are together in classroom life. Further, it raises questions about what social meaning is made visible from events if key is attended to in the process of transcription.

Author

• Faythe P Beauchemin, The Ohio State University - Columbus