Low-dialogical categories. Managerial (MA) A fundamental distinction in classroom discourse analysis is between “epistemic talk” (Xxxxxxxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx 2014), namely a dialogue aimed at the achievement of the learning outcomes, and other types of talk identifiable in both teacher-student and student-student interaction, which are often characterised as “procedural” and “task talk” (Xxxxxxx 1998). Our Managerial (MA) category refers to the moves that fall into both the procedural and task talk type, distinguishing the moves that are used to establish the task (or norms for the task). In particular, MA moves includes both the moves referring to activity coordination, and the moves referring to turn-taking coordination. Table 4 shows an example of each. Table 4: Moves coded as Managerial. Example Explanation What have you written so far? Activity coordination Let’s do it like this: each one says something and then we decide which suggestion to go with. Turn-taking coordination Stating (ST) This coding category refers to “representations,” namely the conveyance of information, viewpoints, and value judgments on a state of affair or another viewpoint (Labov and Fanshel 1977). This code includes any act of stating or asserting that a state of facts or ideas is true or false without defending such assertion. A ST move is defined based on the dialogical effect, not on its grammatical form. Therefore, this move can be performed also through sentences that are not assertive. For example, interrogative sentences can be used for different purposes, not only for asking questions, and a classical case is represented by rhetorical questions (“isn’t it the most…”), which do not convey requests of information, but rather claims. Similarly, proposals expressed in the interrogative form (“what about…”) do not request information, but first express something, and only secondly do they explicitly elicit what assertions and proposals normally do – a reaction that can be of agreement, disagreement, or acknowledgment. Some examples of Stating both as affirmative and interrogative sentences are given in Table 5. Table 5: Moves coded as Stating. Example Explanation The text speaks about diversity. Sometimes the norms can be improved. Advancing a viewpoint through an affirmative sentence Ahm[…] values […] for example you may think that something is correct and not, like, is wrong, the value, see? [… ] Advancing a viewpoint through an interrogative sentence But, actually that is not that important, is it...
