UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Negotiating Knowledge, Emotion, and Cultural Solidarity: Epistemics and Empathy in a Literacy Class for Mixtec Migrants A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics by Adrienne Lynett 2017 © Copyright by Adrienne Lynett 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Negotiating Knowledge, Emotion, and Cultural Solidarity: Epistemics and Empathy in a Literacy Class for Mixtec Migrants by Adrienne Lynett Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor John H. Schumann, Chair People frequently display understanding of one another’s goals and actions in conversation. Aside from building a common ground necessary for conversation to take place, this intersubjective understanding can be a means for creating and maintaining social affiliation. For indigenous Mexican immigrants in the U.S., this interactional means of connecting with other members of their community is especially crucial given their marginalized status. This dissertation uses a conversation analysis approach to investigate the interactive construction of social affiliation in a community of indigenous Mexican immigrants in a Spanish-language literacy class in California. These immigrants are native speakers of the indigenous Mesoamerican language Mixtec, and are therefore learning to read and write for the first time in a second language. To uncover the role of social affiliation in this literacy classroom, I focus on the interactional features that contribute to and reveal shared sociocultural ii understanding — namely, the deployment of epistemic and empathic resources for cultural affiliation. Chapter 1 orients the reader to the study, provides rationale for and aims of the project, and states the project’s research questions. Chapter 2 surveys some of the relevant scholarship on language and social affiliation, drawing from the theoretical orientations of language socialization, sociocultural models of literacy acquisition, and conversation analysis (specifically as regards epistemics and empathic communication). Chapter 3 provides background information about the Mixtec community, including a very brief overview of the history Mixtec people in the U.S., the Mixtec language, and indigenous cultural orientations. Chapter 4 describes the methods used to collect and analyze the data (primarily ethnographic and conversation analytic), and recruitment procedures for the study participants. Chapter 5 begins the analysis portion of the dissertation, investigating repair sequences as resources for managing epistemic imbalances and building social affiliation. Chapter 6 turns our attention to empathy in this setting, focusing on assessments as resources for displaying and soliciting empathy. Chapter 7 treats both epistemics and empathy by way of analyzing instances of metalinguistic discourse in the classroom. (Each analysis chapter concludes with a section on implications of the findings for learning). Finally, Chapter 8 concludes the study and proposes some future directions in the same strain of research. To conduct this research, I engaged in long-term ethnographic study of the community and captured video-recordings of interactions whenever possible, which were transcribed and analyzed using conversation analysis methods. The study illustrates how epistemic and empathic resources serve not only to advance the progressivity of conversation but also to reveal and build sociocultural solidarity among a displaced community. iii As a study that investigates these particular communicative achievements within a specific community of practice, this dissertation addresses the “problem of intersubjectivity” — i.e., how people understand one another without direct access to others’ minds — as well as the understudied phenomena of adult literacy acquisition and indigenous immigrants’ experiences. Such an investigation, which uses epistemics and empathy as a point of departure from which to study the experiences of adult language-minority individuals in the literacy classroom, can illuminate both the particular experience of indigenous immigrants acquiring literacy, and the very universal endeavor to find common ground through social interaction. Moreover, this study illustrates the potential of ethnomethodological research for understanding how social structures and ideologies are constructed, quietly and continuously, through everyday social interaction. iv The dissertation of Adrienne Lynett is approved. Marjorie Harness Goodwin John Heritage John H. Schumann, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 v Dedicated to Mom and Dad, who first taught me the value of knowledge and empathy vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Epistemics and empathy 2 1.2 Overview of the dissertation 4 CHAPTER 2 A review of the literature on language and social affiliation 8 2.1 The co-evolution of language and social cognition 8 2.2 Social interaction and language acquisition 9 2.2.1 Language socialization 11 2.2.2 Literacy acquisition: Autonomous and social approaches 13 2.3 Social interaction and language use 22 2.3.1 Epistemics and empathy 25 2.4 Conclusion 36 CHAPTER 3 The Mixtec people in the U.S.: A history of migration, discrimination, and cultural identification 37 3.1 The Mixtec community in the United States 39 3.2 The Mixtec language 43 3.2.1 Mixtec and health care 48 3.2.2 Mixtec in the courts 50 3.2.3 Mixtec in the schools 51 3.3 Indigenous cultural values 52 CHAPTER 4 Methodology 55 4.1 Study settings 55 4.1.1 Literacy class at indigenous community center 55 4.1.2 Oaxaca, Mexico 56 4.2 Participants 57 4.3 Research and analysis 57 4.3.1 Ethnography and participant-observation 58 4.3.2 Conversation analysis 59 4.3.3 Interviews 60 CHAPTER 5 Repair as a resource for balancing epistemic authority and social affiliation 61 5.1 Introduction 61 5.2 Embodied repair initiation 63 5.3 Appeal to a common referent 69 5.4 Summoning teacher evaluation 71 5.5 Laughter as response to repair initiation 75 5.6 Student-initiated repair 79 5.7 Conclusions and implications for learning 84 vii CHAPTER 6 Assessment and its role in displaying empathy and building group solidarity 88 6.1 Introduction 88 6.2 Instructor-produced assessments 89 6.2.1 Assessment as part of an IRE sequence 90 6.2.2 Embodied initiation of assessment sequences 92 6.3 Student-produced assessment: Evaluating schoolwork 98 6.3.1 Negotiating claims about work and school 103 6.4 Student-produced assessment: Self-denigration 107 6.5 Conclusions and implications for learning 116 CHAPTER 7 Metalinguistic discourse as a resource for epistemic and affective stance-taking 119 7.1 Introduction 119 7.2 Language about language 120 7.2.1 Letter names 121 7.2.2 Recalling the name of an illness 126 7.2.3 Disputing a literary genre 130 7.3 Language about language use 138 7.3.1 Self-reflection assignment 138 7.3.2 The value of self-expression 143 7.4 Conclusions and implications for learning 150 CHAPTER 8 Conclusion 154 7.1 Implications for learning 155 7.2 Methodological challenges and imperatives 156 7.3 Future research directions 159 APPENDIX Transcription notation and translation conventions 162 REFERENCES 165 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: The town of San Martín Peras, Oaxaca, Mexico 38 Figure 3.2: The town of San Miguel Cuevas, Oaxaca, Mexico 38 Figure 3.3: A dirt road outside San Miguel Cuevas, Oaxaca 42 Figure 3.4: Section of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall 45 Figure 3.5: Mixtec picture alphabet 46 Figure 3.6: Farmworkers pick strawberries in Ventura County, California 48 Figure 3.7: Revelers honor the patron saint of San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca 53 Figure 5.1: Student, Victor, recites syllables as teacher, Gaby, points to white board 64 Figure 5.2: Teacher Gaby’s embodied repair initiation and correction 66 Figure 5.3: Gaby explains the “ss” sound to Victor 70 Figure 5.4: Students Ramona and Mercedes and teacher Gaby discuss the lesson 71 Figure 5.4: Student Amalia laughs away after receiving correction from instructor Isa 77 Figure 6.1: Student Berta begins to extend workbook toward Isa 93 Figure 6.2: Berta continues to move workbook toward Isa, who looks up from table 93 Figure 6.3: Isa reaches out to take Berta’s workbook 94 Figure 6.4: Isa provides her assessment of Berta’s work while Berta looks on 94 Figure 6.5: Ignacio puts his pencil down, looks to his left, and leans back in his chair 99 Figure 6.7: Berta begins to object that she won’t “be able to” do the work 108 Figure 6.8: Berta finishes saying she won’t be able to [do the task] 109 Figure 6.9: A portrait of César Chavez hangs on the wall of the classroom 112 Figure 6.10: Student Ignacio pumps his fist 113 Figure 7.1: Instructor Isa demonstrates “little bumps” on her hand to student Griselda 128 Figure 7.2: Student Amalia gestures toward self 145 Figure 7.3: Amalia shifts gaze to Margarita, who shakes her head 146 Figure 7.4: Amalia gestures with both hands while looking at Isa 146 Figure 7.5: Isa points at Amalia as she says exacto 147 ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Like all human accomplishments, this dissertation “incorporates ways of knowing inherited from predecessors” too numerous to count (Goodwin, 2013). To those predecessors I was lucky enough to meet during my time at UCLA, I extend my deepest gratitude. To my dissertation committee chair, John Schumann, thank you for so generously stepping in as my advisor, for furthering my interest in interdisciplinarity with your enthusiasm for learning of all kinds, and for your continued guidance as I navigated the graduate program. Your insightful musings on the nature of learning and knowledge pushed me to interrogate the disciplinary contexts of my research, and more generally served as a constant reminder of the importance of speculation and reflection in scholarship. Thanks also to Hongyin Tao, for your always thoughtful commentary on my project and for encouraging my interest in applying linguistic analysis to social issues.