Abstracting a schema

What we see used in Tobi’s demonstration of the skill of plattermaking is two schemas, or speech genres, for teaching and learning respectively.

The interaction transcribed in Transcripts 5.1–5.5 can be described as a sequence of discourse spaces, continuously updated by Tobi’s talk and actions as her demonstration proceeds. Four cycles of actions are ended by a question about ‘having seen’. A visual representation of a schema of these recurring commonalities of several usage events can be made by using the Viewing frame from the larger schema of the Current Discourse Spaces (CDS), presented earlier in 2.5.1 on page 39 and 5.1.1 on page 142.

In any discourse situation of face-to-face interaction, the interaction is grounded in the physical presence of the participants, here Tobi as the Teacher T and Loumbi and Doudou as the Learners, L1 and L2. The other persons present also participate, but not directly in the role of Learners, they are bystanders. The platter, the awl, the heap ofbàlí fibres and Tobi’s hands as she works are part of the discourse situation as well. As this is a teaching situation, the discourse space also contains Tobi’s specialised knowledge of the skill of plattermaking, not shared by the Learners. They do, however, all three share the knowledge of the unfolding discourse as a teaching situation, and therefore both Tobi and the girls use speech genres belonging with such a situation.

The Viewing frame from the CDS schema presented in Fig. 5.1 on page 145 shows that there is focused attention from both T and L on the content of T’s knowledge, brought about by the usage of linguistic ecpressions. Extracting the successive viewing frames from the larger discourse space as it is continously updated, we can follow an interaction through time, also in the interaction presented here. The point of interest in this case, however, is not every detail of the unfolding discourse as such, but the schema which can be abstracted from the recurrent commonalities of these several usage events. Fig. 5.9 on the facing page depicts such an abstracted Viewing frame schema, showing a speech genre of teaching as used by Tobi in the described interaction.

The schema in Fig. 5.9 shows the several conceptualisation and vocalisation channels of the linguistic schema. The interacting parties of T and L and the objects handled are present not only in the Ground, but in the conceptualisation of the interactant as part of the Objective situation. The acts which are demonstrated as part of the skill taught, are present both as Segmental content (a vocalisation channel) and as Objective situation (a conceptualisation channel).

By being publicly visible and audible, the content of the viewing frame is shared by T and L, it is not a representation of the T’s conceptualisation only. The same participants and objects will be present in the the Learners’

conceptualisation, together with the acts carried out by the Teacher,to the extent

5.2. LEARNING SKILLS IN MIPOM

Figure 5.9: A schema for plattermaking skill demonstration

that they are apprehended as belonging to the skill taught. If the Learners succeed in conceptualising the same acts as the Teacher demonstrates, they can learn how to do it for themselves. If not, the teaching will fail and a further demonstration will be needed. This is why Tobi asks so consistently about having seen.

In the present case, then, the acts Tobi carries out in each cycle is part of both the vocalisation channel of Segmental content and conceptualised as part of the Objective situation. The Segmental content of the schema specifies both the necessary acts on the platter, and the question about having seen, which draws attention to the necessity of observing intently. It is a feature of teaching by demonstration quite likely to occur in other such interactions as well.

Fig. 5.9 shows in this way a possible teaching speech genre as an abstraction of commonalities in the four cycles of the plattermaking demonstration. To make it more general, the platter and awl can be changed with a more abstract notion of

‘object’, while a succession of abstract ‘acts’ and a ‘having seen’-question can be retained for use in many similar situations. The interaction of Tobi and the girls is the clearest illustration of a teaching situation recorded in my data, but I observed and participated in other situations with a similar setup. While there most likely will exist other schemas of teaching-talk for demonstrations as well, the schema presented here is a plausible Nizaa teaching speech genre.

The corresponding speech genre of the Learners in this discourse situation is different, mostly by being the same over a long stretch of time. The response used

Figure 5.10: Expressing observation of plattermaking demonstration

here by the Learners is non-verbal: they simply keep quiet and watch. Loumbi, directly targeted for learning by Tobi in the first cycle changes her body position in order to watch better. Her act can be depicted in a Viewing frame of the discourse situation, see Fig. 5.10.

In the rest of the interaction, the girls continue to express their keen observation simply by holding their positions and gazing at what Tobi is doing, while keeping quiet. An abstraction of their communicative behaviour over most of the interaction recorded would be almost like Fig. 5.10, except the ‘rise up and bend over’ part of the Gesture/Gaze channel. Accordingly a more general schema for this learner’s speech genre for a skill demonstration would simply be silence and gaze direction on the vocalisation side, and ‘observing’ and the relevant participants, acts and objects observed, on the conceptualisation side.

Other talk

We saw that the expert may comment more precisely on smaller parts of the task, as in Transcript 5.2 on page 156. This talk, as well as the placement of the ‘Did you see that?’ question, is timed by the flow of actions being shown. The talk serves to make more salient the smaller parts of the action.

Another kind of talk may also be used in this kind of teaching situation, when some work subtask takes time, but does not really need further commentary in