COMMUNICATIVE RESOURCES IN ESL STUDENT INTERACTION: GAZE, GESTURE, TEXT AND SPEECH by ERICA GAIL DAVILA A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Portland State University 2006 DEDICATION To my grandparents, Ana Maria and Fidel Dávila, for their stubborn belief in the power of education. And to my mother, Susan Rippert, for her courage. ACKOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee, David Ritchie, Susan Conrad, and Steve Reder. Steve guided me through the long and winding thesis process with many thoughtful discussions and perceptive comments. I would also like to thank Kathy Harris and John Hellerman for their invaluable moral support and for their practical advice along the way. I am indebted to Mary Hamilton, Liz Miller and Emily Farrell, who provided insightful comments at an early stage. I would not have completed the process without the support Lilliane Gerwing, Gwen Heller-Tuason, Martha Irvine, Sara Packer, and Andrea Vergun. These women invited me to participate in their thesis support groups and listened with care and patience when my ideas were still unruly and disorganized. I would like to thank the entire Lab School crew for their moral support. Craig Topolski, Sarah Ouellette Barrett, and Rebekah Disbrow-Chen were my thesis role models and their example proved that it is possible to complete a thesis. Vid Mihaescu helped me through the inevitable technical glitches. Kristin Setzler willingly provided advice and moral support. Sandra Banke taught the class that turned into the data for this thesis. Fidelia Twenge-Jinings, Erika Lachenmeier, and Laura McCray are wonderful friends and I love them all. I am grateful to Dominique Brillanceu for sharing her thoughtful approach to teaching and for her infectious laugh. And finally, thank you to Dan, who provided countless home-cooked meals, relentless cheer-leading, a shoulder to cry on, and who refused to stop making me laugh. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. ii List of Tables.......................................................................................................... v List of Figures......................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 Introduction.................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review........................................................................... 5 Interaction and SLA ...................................................................... 5 Written Language and SLA ......................................................... 12 Approaches to the Study of Written Language ........................... 15 Studies of Print in Interaction ...................................................... 23 An Expanded Perspective on Interaction .................................... 27 Research Question ....................................................................... 31 Chapter 3 Method.......................................................................................... 34 Description of Research Methodology ........................................ 34 The Lab School Setting ............................................................... 35 Data Selection .............................................................................. 37 Description of the Data Set .......................................................... 40 Participants .................................................................................. 42 Data Analysis ............................................................................... 43 Chapter 4 Results and Discussion................................................................. 48 List of Terms ............................................................................... 49 Calendar Task: “What day is January twenty-second?” .............. 50 Grid Task: “Please talk to four students and write.” ................... 71 Short Story Task: “Read the story with your partner.” ............... 95 Chapter Summary ...................................................................... 110 Chapter 5 Conclusion.................................................................................. 112 Summary of Findings ................................................................. 112 Discussion................................................................................... 115 Limitations.................................................................................. 119 Pedagogical Implications and Applications ............................... 119 Suggestions for Further Research............................................... 121 References................................................................................................................................................. 123 iii Appendixes A. Reproductions of Teacher-Provided Print Materials ....................... 126 B. Raw Counts of Points and Gaze to Partner ..................................... 129 C. Detail of Calendar and Grid Question/Answer Sequences............... 132 D. Transcription Conventions ............................................................... 134 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Overview of Three Tasks and Eight Interactions .............................................. 42 Table 3.2 Participant Characteristics ......................................................................................... 42 Table 4.1 Overview of Three Calendar Interactions ........................................................... 52 Table 4.2 Calendar Task: Context of Points to Print Materials ....................................... 61 Table 4.3 Overview of Three Grid Interactions .................................................................... 74 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Rosalinda & Camille Calendar Task – Typical Gaze Patterns ......................55 Figure 4.2 Rosalinda & Tina Calendar Task – Mutual Negotiation Gaze ..................... 57 Figure 4.3 Rosalinda & Tina Calendar Task – No Negotiation......................................... 59 Figure 4.4 Rosalinda & Camille Calendar Task – End of the Interaction...................... 60 Figure 4.5 Rosalinda & Tina Calendar Task – Physical Moves during Repair............ 62 Figure 4.6 Vanida & Thu Calendar Task – Different Functions of Points..................... 65 Figure 4.7 Vanida & Thu Calendar Task – Pointing as Primary Mode.......................... 70 Figure 4.8 Rosalinda & Camille Grid Task – Physical Reference.................................... 76 Figure 4.9 Vanida & Thu Grid Task – Written Answers..................................................... 83 Figure 4.10 Vanida & Thu Grid Task – Compare Answers.................................................. 84 Figure 4.11 Vanida & Tina Grid Task – Oral Language for “Practice”............................ 87 Figure 4.12 Vanida & Thu Grid Task – Shift in Oral Form.................................................. 89 Figure 4.13 Vanida & Tina Grid Task – Joint Gaze................................................................. 92 Figure 4.14 Rosalinda & Camille Short Story Task – Partner Gaze................................. 100 Figure 4.15 Vanida & Thu Short Story Task – Joint Gaze while Writing...................... 103 Figure 4.16 Vanida & Thu Short Story Task – Identifying Written Form..................... 104 Figure 4.17 Rosalinda & Camille Short Story Task – Multiple Modes........................... 105 Figure 4.18 Rosalinda & Camille Short Story Task – Identify Written Form............... 106 Figure 4.19 Vanida & Thu Short Story Task – Visual Reference..................................... 108 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “Every day in class all we did was talk,” he said. “The teacher, she didn’t let us write.” My Russian-speaking student was telling me about an ESL class he had previously attended on the upper west side of Manhattan. His teacher had taken the rather unorthodox step of banning pencils and paper from the classroom. When students wanted to note a particular vocabulary item or a new structure, she wrote the language on large sheets of butcher paper taped to the walls. During break, some students diligently copied all of the written text into their notebooks. From what my student told me, classroom activities included playing language games, drawing time lines on the board, creating stories from pictures, and other similar activities. He spoke in glowing terms about how the students in the class, initially wary of this oral-only approach, were soon motivated by their considerable, surprising gains in spoken proficiency. I remember this story so clearly because of the earnest way my student told it. His eyes twinkled, he gestured emphatically and he tripped over his English words in his excitement to tell me about his experience. Here was a highly educated man – a poet and a university professor – advocating that we abandon all literate tools so that students could learn to open their ears, listen attentively, and concentrate on speaking. In contrast to this student’s experience, the typical ESL learner enters a classroom that is saturated with literacy. Whether working with textbooks, worksheets, 1 conversation cards, or jazz chant scripts, learners must often attend simultaneously to both written and spoken language. Even tasks intended to foster oral language