Positions and actions of classroom-specific applause

Yuri Hosoda and David Aline
Abstract

While the interactional conditions and timing of applause in audience response to public speeches has received attention in conversation analysis research, little research has been done on applause in educational contexts. The nature of applause, however, can vary depending on the context. This paper examines classroom-specific applause and focuses on where in classroom interaction the applause can occur, who initiates the applause, and what the applause accomplishes in the interaction. The data come from 14 audio and video-recorded Japanese primary school EFL class sessions. The analysis reveals that the applause in the data was a typically teacher-initiated action and it regularly occurred in sequence closing position as a positive assessment to the students’ success in carrying out the teachers’ oriented-to expectations.

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