Word searches: on the use of verbal and non-verbal resources during classroom talk

The teacher’s initial labelling of ‘a guitar’ and her tag question are treated by C as an
invitation to ‘tell more’ about the topic of musical things that we can see in the
picture. In line 2 C begins a listing of items, beginning with a repeat of the teacher’s
label, followed by a second item (‘CD player’) with some additional information. So
far, the turn proceeds without overt hesitation. It is during Ciara’s search for a third
item that she encounters difficulties with fluency, indicated by several pauses,
lengthened vowels and production of two single consonants ‘kuh’.

The teacher could have introduced a candidate item herself during any of C’s pauses
(latter part of line 2) but remains silent throughout. It is notable that T waits until C
produces two attempts at the initial consonant before she takes her turn. One
possibility is that the teacher is orienting to the focus of C’s gaze, which is maintained
on the picture and does not shift in her direction. In fact T never, throughout C’s turn
at line 2, receives a direct invitation by gaze to participate. Production of the
consonant sound ‘kuh’ performs two important jobs simultaneously. On the one hand
it triggers T’s collaboration and, at the same time, provides sufficient clue for T to
select the correct item (line 3). The availability of the picture as a joint visual resource
would also facilitate T’s production of the searched-for item and assist in a swift
resolution to the child’s wordsearch. It is also worth examining some of the
implications of T’s turn design at line 3, from a pedagogical perspective. In the first
part of the turn, T confirms C’s use of the initial consonant even though it failed to
lead C to the searched-for item. The teacher is making visible the use of a
phonological self-cue strategy in a word search context, which has interesting
implications from a teaching and therapy perspective.

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