Cheikhna Amar investigates what happens when the participants speak around the circle.
We have collected cases from the morning getting-to-know-you sessions at TGG where the next speaker oriented to being next through embodied actions, specifically gaze, to display their availability and readiness to take the floor. The data reveal differences between the embodied conduct of students who are oriented to being selected and that of other students who are not so oriented. This suggests that the expected next student speaker in classroom interaction can be distinguished from other student participants and that the participants themselves orient to this distinction.
For example, the following figures show how Zen orients to being selected next. The figures follow his gaze and how it shifts to indicate his orientation to being the next speaker.
Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows Zen looking at the current speaker, Dai, while Dai is speaking.
Figure 2.
Once Dai completes his turn, Zen shifts his gaze to the agent (i.e., the teacher) displaying his availability to take the floor (Fig. 2).
Figure 3.
Lastly, after Zen starts speaking, he looks to his left toward Sho who is projected to speak next.
These actions distinguish Zen from the rest of the participants and provide evidence to indicate that he is the next speaker.
Attention to such micro-details enables a better understanding of the interactional practices for turn taking and speaker selection in language learning contexts.
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