Drawing from, reworking and contesting classroom meanings
Repetition as a voicing tool in 6th grade students’ argumentative texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.28853Keywords:
Research topicAbstract
This article, integrating different lines of sociocultural and critical research, sets out to analyze argumentative writing in a 6th grade Cypriot Greek elementary classroom. Attention is directed to specific strategies used, such as repetition and paraphrase of each other’s words and of text meanings. These strategies are revisited as voicing tools, arising out of students’ engagement with a nexus of reading and writing events and with the ideological positions constituted through them. The analysis traces the bi-directional processes at work in this polyvocal community. Classroom activities, rather than seen as neutral, are redefined as constituents of a deeply dialogic universe, which privileges specific texts and voices and projects various identity positions onto speakers and writers. At the same time, this universe gives rise to specific scaffolds which help students in the appropriation of advanced generic resources. Students’ argumentative texts are shown to arise out of the integration of various dialogically-emergent strategies. Analysis illustrates how students, while drawing from prior texts, and acknowledging genre-related scaffolds, rework and contest social meanings and generic resources as part of their attempt to assert their voice vis-à-vis those populating their classroom community.
References
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Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage.
Prior, P. (1998). Writing Disciplinarity: A Sociohistoric Account of Literate Activity in the Academy. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Prior, P. (2001). Voices in text, mind, and society: Sociohistoric accounts of discourse acquisition and use. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10(1-2): 55-81.
Rose, D. & Martin, J. R. (2012). Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield, U.K.: Equinox.
Smart, Gr. (2006). Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking. London: Equinox.
Tannen (1989). Talking Voices. Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tannen, D. (2006). Intertextuality in interaction: Reframing family arguments in public and private. Text & Talk, 26(4-5): 597-617.
Tardy, C. M. (2009). Building Genre Knowledge. West Lafayette: Parlor Press.
Tardy, C. M. (2012). Current conceptions of voice. In K. Hyland and C. S. Guinda (eds.). Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres 34-48. Bakingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Van Dijk, T. (1980). Macrostructures: An Interdisciplinary Study of Global Structures in Discourse, Interaction, and Cognition. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Van Dijk, T. (1993). Elite Discourse and Racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Wertsch, J. (1991). Voices of the Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bakhtin, M. M (1986). The Problem of Speech Genres. In C. Emerson and M. Holquist (eds.), Speech Genres and other late Essays (C. Emerson and M. Holquist, trans.) 60-102. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bazerman, C. (2004). Speech acts, genres and activity systems: How texts organize activity and people. In C. Bazerman and P. Prior (eds.), What Writing does and how it does it: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices 309-339. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bauman, R. (1996). Transformations of the word in the production of Mexican festival drama. In M. Silverstein and G. Urban (eds.), Natural Histories of Discourse 301-329. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blommaert, J. (2008). Grassroots Literacy: Writing, Identity and Voice in Central Africa. London: Routledge.
Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T. N. (1995). Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Canagarajah, S. (2004). Multilingual writers and the struggle for voice in academic discourse. In A. Pavlenko and A. Blackledge (eds.), Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts 266-289. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Crowhurst, M. (1987). Cohesion in argument and narration at three grade levels. Research in the Teaching of English, 21(2): 185-200.
Crowhurst, M. (1991). Interrelationships between reading and writing persuasive discourse. Research in the Teaching of English, 25(3): 314-338.
Davies, B. and Harre, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1): 43-63.
Englebretson, R. (ed.). (2007). Stancetaking in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.
Foucault, M. (1972). The Archeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock.
Gee, J. P. (1996). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourse. London: Taylor and Francis
Gordon, C. (2006). Reshaping prior text, reshaping identities. Text & Talk, 26(4-5): 545-571.
English, F. (2011). Student Writing and Genre: Reconfiguring Academic Knowledge. London: Bloomsbury.
Hood, S. (2012). Voice and stance as Appraisal: Persuading and positioning in research writing across intellectual fields. In K. Hyland and C. S. Guinda (eds.), Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres 51-68. Bakingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Horowitz, R. (1990). Discourse structure in oral and written language. Critical contrasts for literacy and schooling. In J. H. A. L. de Jong and D. K. Stevenson (eds.), Individualizing the Assessment of Language Abilities 108-126. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.
Horowitz, R. and Olson, D. R. (2007). Texts that talk: The special and peculiar nature of classroom discourse and the crediting of sources. In R. Horowitz (ed.). Talking Texts: How Speech and Writing Interact in School Learning 55-90. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ivanic, R. (1998). Writing and Identity: The Discoursal Construction of Identity in Academic Writing. Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins.
Jaffe, A. (ed.). (2009). Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jones, R. (2015). Generic intertextuality in online social activism: The case of the It Gets Better project. Language in Society, 44(3): 317-339.
Kutter, A. (2014). A catalytic moment: the Greek crisis in the German press. Discourse and Society, 25(4): 446-466.
Labov, W. & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: oral versions of personal experiences. In J. Helm (ed.), Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts 12-44. Washington, DC: University of Washington Press.
Lea, M. & Street, B. (1998). Student writing and faculty feedback in higher education: An academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2): 157-172.
Lillis, T. M. (2003). An ‘academic literacies’ approach to student writing in higher education: Drawing on Bakhtin to move from critique to design. Language and Education, 17(3): 192-207.
Lillis, T. M. & Curry, M. J. (2010). Academic Writing in a Global Context: The Politics and Practices of Publishing in English. London: Routledge.
Martin, J. R. & White, P. R. R. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal of English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Martin, J. R. (2013). Embedded literacy: Knowledge as meaning. Linguistics and Education, 24(1): 23-37.
Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage.
Prior, P. (1998). Writing Disciplinarity: A Sociohistoric Account of Literate Activity in the Academy. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Prior, P. (2001). Voices in text, mind, and society: Sociohistoric accounts of discourse acquisition and use. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10(1-2): 55-81.
Rose, D. & Martin, J. R. (2012). Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield, U.K.: Equinox.
Smart, Gr. (2006). Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking. London: Equinox.
Tannen (1989). Talking Voices. Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tannen, D. (2006). Intertextuality in interaction: Reframing family arguments in public and private. Text & Talk, 26(4-5): 597-617.
Tardy, C. M. (2009). Building Genre Knowledge. West Lafayette: Parlor Press.
Tardy, C. M. (2012). Current conceptions of voice. In K. Hyland and C. S. Guinda (eds.). Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres 34-48. Bakingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Van Dijk, T. (1980). Macrostructures: An Interdisciplinary Study of Global Structures in Discourse, Interaction, and Cognition. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Van Dijk, T. (1993). Elite Discourse and Racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Wertsch, J. (1991). Voices of the Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Published
2017-07-13
Issue
Section
Reflections on Practice
How to Cite
Kostouli, T., & Stylianou, M. (2017). Drawing from, reworking and contesting classroom meanings: Repetition as a voicing tool in 6th grade students’ argumentative texts. Writing and Pedagogy, 9(1), 135–161. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.28853
