A Pilot Study On Classroom Observation Education Essay

Chapter 4

This chapter describes a pilot survey conducted after the preliminary survey and before the chief survey. It begins by a brief debut given in subdivision 4.1, followed by treatments on the sample choice, observation agenda and pre and station session interviews in subdivision 4.2. Section 4.3 covers the schoolroom observations. Gesture cryptography, including the written text, coding jobs and policy, and consequences of the cryptography are included in subdivision 4.4. Discussion and decision concentrating on schoolroom observation and metaphoric gestures are covered in subdivision 4.5. The chapter ends with the deductions for the chief survey explored in subdivision 4.6.

4.1 About the Pilot Study

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This pilot survey built on a old little graduated table preliminary survey ( chapter 3 ) . The purposes were: ( a ) to see existent clip schoolroom observation ; ( B ) to prove out and better the observation agenda and interview inquiries ; ( degree Celsius ) to research whether Chinese music instructors used metaphoric gestures and if so, what these metaphors were and where they were used ; and ( vitamin D ) to prove out and develop metaphoric gesture designation processs.

The focal point was limited to music Sessionss in junior high schools because in the preliminary survey, more metaphors were found from the junior degree than from the simple degree. The information of this pilot survey were transcribed from three general music Sessionss taken by Wang, a music instructor in a junior high school in Taiwan.

4.2 Before the Observation

4.2.1 Sample Selection

Situated in a in-between to upper-middle category suburb of a major northern metropolis, Wang 's school was founded in 1988, with 4,268 pupils and 113 categories in 2006. It is considered to be a large school, comparative to the official norm of 1,299 pupils per junior high school in Taiwan for the school twelvemonth 2005-2006 ( Department of Statistics, Ministry of Education of Taiwan ) . The informations were collected in general music categories with pupils aged between 12 and 14. Each category contained around 35 pupils, and talk was the lone type of interaction observed. The consequences of the preliminary survey showed that metaphor denseness may differ because of learning content. Therefore the Sessionss observed for this pilot were limited to music theory, music history, and music grasp.

Wang ( a anonym ) had received her MA in musicology four old ages antecedently and since so had been learning music in the same junior high school. Bing really open-minded about taking portion in research and being observed, Wang was one of the really first music instructors I contacted for the preliminary survey. Since so she had been helpful in replying my inquiries and supplying me background information about the state of affairs of music instruction in junior high school degree in Taiwan. After the preliminary survey, I emailed her to inquire her permission for me to come in her schoolroom and video-record a twosome of Sessionss, and she agreed to take part.

Music lessons form portion of the Humanistic disciplines and Humanities class class in junior high schools in Taiwan ( see subdivision 2.4.1 ) , and hence music, humanistic disciplines, and executing humanistic disciplines portion one text edition. `` The humanistic disciplines subdivision negotiations about utilizing different colorss to stand for the four seasons, and the music subdivision negotiations about Vivaldi. So it occurred to me that it 's a good chance to give a talk on the Baroque epoch and present Vivaldi 's The Four Seasons to them, '' ( Wang, pilot interview 2 ) . At the clip when this study was written, MOE of Taiwan did non supply one `` standard '' version of the text edition, and schools were free to take the version they preferred.

Wang therefore on a regular basis designed the content of her lessons. `` The text edition references nil about the Baroque epoch so I make my ain PowerPoint slides to assist pupils set up the background cognition '' ( Wang, the same interview ) . Teachers are allowed to re-arrange the order of the instruction contents and set related things together.

In some schools, music instructors have to learn executing humanistic disciplines, but this was non the instance in Wang 's school, where there were three single instructors for the three bomber classs: music, humanistic disciplines, and executing humanistic disciplines.

4.2.2 Observation Schedule and Interviews

After Wang agreed to take part in the survey, I explained to her about the research through electronic mail. She understood that the research was about schoolroom discourse and hence suggested me to put the observation clip at a hebdomad after the mid-term test, when she was approximately to present the Baroque epoch to her pupils. One month before the schoolroom observation, Wang and I met to discourse which classes to detect, including when I should get, where I should sit and how best to put up the recording installation. In add-on, Wang approximately explained what sort of schoolroom activities would be involved and what she intended to learn. Wang was told that the survey was about schoolroom talk and the thought was to detect a session with every bit much talk involved as possible. She hence suggested Sessionss chiefly covering music history and music grasp. This meeting is classed as pilot interview 1 ( for more inside informations, see Appendix B ) .

A real-time observation agenda was designed, with a intent of associating the schoolroom activities and metaphor usage. As can be seen from the agenda ( see Appendix C ) , both start and terminal times of the activities needed to be specified and during each activity, runs of metaphors and gestures needed to be made, so that I could acquire a basic sense of where bunchs of metaphors and gestures most frequently occurred ( though in the event it proved about impossible for me to number them during categories, something which will be discussed subsequently in 4.6.1 ) . In add-on, the observation agenda covered: administration of the category, stuffs, and musical instruments used, and the linguistic communication used by the instructor and pupils. A general feeling of schoolroom ambiance would be noted as H ( high ) , F ( carnival ) , or L ( low ) to see if schoolroom atmosphere is related to metaphor usage.

A follow-up interview ( pilot interview 2 ) with Wang was conducted after detecting the three Sessionss. The face-to-face semistructured interview took topographic point in Wang 's music schoolroom during her interruption, enduring 42 proceedingss. Again, I was permitted to enter it, and at the same clip made notes while Wang was speaking. A list of information or inquiries I planned to seek or inquire, translated from Chinese ( the linguistic communication used during the interview ) into English is appended ( Appendix D ) . In the interviews, information was sought about Wang 's educational background and working experience, and inquiries covered how Wang prepared for the category and aimed to explicate new constructs, how Wang thought about metaphors and gestures, and if she used them to assist her Teach. Mandarin Chinese was used throughout the interview. Notice that the Numberss are for the convenience of composing up the study ; the inquiries were asked without any specific order.

During the interview with Wang, the above subjects were covered. To Wang, metaphor helped the pupils to link music and their day-to-day life experiences. She gave an illustration of the birds, Canis familiariss, spring air current, and summer boom in Vivaldi 's The Four Seasons. However, she did non normally interpret music in her ain manner when introducing or depicting it- '' I merely interpreted the music in the manner which the composer marked on the music manuscript '' ( Wang, pilot interview 2 ) .

Although overall the interviews went swimmingly, it was realised that some inquiries were excessively general and more inquiries about metaphor and gestures were needed. Detailss are discussed in 4.6.1.

4.3 During the Observation

For the first session, I entered the music schoolroom with Wang around 15 proceedingss before the session began. Wang told me that because of the limited Numberss of music schoolrooms, music instructors in her school had to take bends utilizing them. It was Wang 's bend to hold one of the music classrooms that semester and hence she was allowed to remain in the room waiting for the pupils to get. The excess clip proved utile from the point of position of puting up the picture equipment.

The chief equipment in the music schoolroom included a piano, an electronic piano, a chalkboard with clean musical staff, an LCD projector, a DVD participant, and a few classical instrumentalists ' portrayals and illustrations of musical instruments on the walls, etc. Wang had to supply her ain laptop.

Figure 4.1 illustrates the layout of the schoolroom where the three observed Sessionss took topographic point. The two black circles on the top exposure indicate where the picture recording equipment was placed and where I sat. The picture recording equipment started to enter when the pupils started to walk into the schoolroom. It was non turned off until the category was dismissed and the schoolroom was empty.

Neither the instructor 's nor the pupils ' seats were moved. As a nonparticipant research worker, I tried to maintain the schoolroom the manner it was without me. I sat at the dorsum of the schoolroom next to the picture recording equipment, to take field notes which might be helpful during the readying of the transcripts. Photographs were besides taken earlier or/and after Sessionss. The picture recording equipment started to enter when the pupils started to walk into the schoolroom. It was non turned off until the category was dismissed and the schoolroom was empty.

Figure 4.1. Pilot survey: Music schoolroom scene.

For most of the clip the pupils could non see me during the categories. However, there was one clip, while Wang corrected a pupil 's thumbing while playing the recording equipment, another pupil kept turning and gesticulating `` YA '' ( the V mark, with his index and in-between fingers of his right manus raised and the staying fingers clenched, palm facing outwards ; a really popular gesture in Taiwan when being photographed ) toward the picture recording equipment. Wang noticed it. She asked the pupil to stand up and present himself to the picture recording equipment, and encouraged him to give a solo public presentation for two bars, and so the session continued. This was the lone break caused by the research worker 's presence during the Sessionss I observed.

The talk construction of the three Sessionss I observed was rather similar. It was because Wang designed and followed her ain instruction course of study for each twelvemonth of the pupils, and besides because the three Sessionss I observed were all in the same twelvemonth ( twelvemonth seven ) . The session started with playing the recording equipment. Wang reviewed the piece she had taught in the old session with the whole category and so selected a few pupils to stand up and play separately, in order to detect how much pupils had learned ( Wang, pilot interview 2 ) . Then she taught one new piece by showing and playing with the whole category. After the recording equipment playing, the talk portion `` episode '' ( Lemke, 1990 ) started. Wang began by presenting the recording equipment ensembles: bass, tenor, alto, soprano and sopranino recording equipments. Then she introduced some of import epochs in musical history, with a focal point on the Baroque. To this terminal, Wang gave pupils some background cognition about the features of the music, musical instruments, and some celebrated instrumentalists, before presenting Vivaldi and his concerto, The Four Seasons.

By and large talking, the observation agenda proved easy to tag. Keeping records based on schoolroom activities made it easy to remember what happened in the Sessionss, and there was adequate clip to maintain records for most of the classs, except for the Numberss of lingual metaphor and gesture used. Second it became clear that some classs needed to be farther specified-this will be discussed subsequently in 4.6.1.

4.4 Gesture Coding

McNeill 's strategy ( see subdivisions 6.3.2 for a reappraisal of the literature and 6.3.3 for a treatment, on gesture categorization systems ) applied in this survey required inquiring what significances and maps a gesture possessed. In other words, the classs were non based on merely one aspect of a gesture. For illustration, iconics and metaphorics were more semantically oriented, while deictics were more pragmatically oriented. Because of this, each class was non treated as discrete or reciprocally sole, but as holding characteristics that may be present in changing grades, and perchance in combination. Therefore, the ultimate end of gesture cryptography is to place the extent to which each characteristic is present, instead than sort the gestures ( Eisenstein & A ; Davis, 2004 ; McNeill, 1992 ) . In this pilot so it is really of import to put up a cryptography policy to bespeak when to categorize a gesture by its significance and when by map. More inside informations are discussed in 4.4.3.

Two programmers were involved in gesture cryptography in order to prove out McNeill 's process and increase the dependability of the survey. The other programmer, a alumnus pupil in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of York, was a native talker of Chinese with some cognition of metaphor holding conducted her MA research on the subject. McNeill 's three chief gesture categories-deictics, iconics, and metaphorics-were introduced before I asked her to categorize the gestures which Wang used. Due to clip restriction, merely a portion of the hearing to The Four Seasons from Wang 's first session was selected. The portion was chosen for its heavy distribution of gestures. It lasted for five proceedingss and ten seconds, with 35 gestures identified by me antecedently. More inside informations about gesture cryptography are discussed in 4.4.4.

4.4.1 Data Choice

Due to the limited clip available, merely one session was chosen for gesture cryptography. The ground for taking the first session was that although the construction of the three Sessionss was similar, the first session was more complete and covered all the activities from recording equipment playing, a talk on the Baroque epoch, to music hearing, with a more even allotment of clip, than the other two Sessionss. Types of activities affair here because if Numberss of gestures differ in different types of activities ( and it seems so from the consequences ) , affecting more activities in the informations can cut down the hazard of any possible gesture loss.

4.4.2 Transcribing the Data

Both gestures and address were transcribed. Speech was transcribed to the full from the videotape in Chinese. The written text of gestures included three stairss: ( a ) place the motions that were gestures ( here gesticulations ) ; ( B ) place the shot of the each gesture ; and ( degree Celsius ) locate the boundaries of the gesture phases in the relevant portion of the phonological written text.

4.4.3 Coding Problems and Policy

The consequences of the gesture classification from the two programmers were compared. Unlike deictics, which were all agreed by both programmers, iconics and metaphorics seemed to represent the more debatable classs. One of the illustrations was where Wang lifted her left manus at shoulder tallness with her thenar confronting up and wiggled her center, ring, and small fingers fast in bend when stating the word zhuangshiyin ( `` shake '' ; actual interlingual rendition: `` ornament notes '' ) . Although both programmers agreed that Wang was keeping an unseeable fiddle and playing the shakes, we however coded it otherwise. The other programmer coded it as metaphoric, because the referent of the gesture, zhuangshiyin, was interpreted as a lingual metaphor itself. I coded it as iconic because the gesture in fact was stand foring what was explicit in the attach toing address and therefore had a close relation to the gesture. This helped develop one of the coding policies later-gestures attach toing metaphors in address were non decidedly considered to be metaphorics.

Another job related to the programmers ' differential focal points and readings of the same gesture. Wang said, `` The boom came fast and went fast. Then it became quiet once more. '' In the first sentence she began by traveling her left arm from left to compensate with the thenar confronting up and fingers curving and so moved the arm back to the left without altering the form of the thenar. For the 2nd sentence, she turned over her left thenar to confront the land with consecutive fingers and pressed down the thenar a small spot in the air. The different cryptography concerned the first sign phrase. When I coded them, I focused on the motions of the arm, which was moved from left to compensate, and so back to the left, which seemed to bespeak `` came '' and `` went '' in address. Therefore the gestures were coded as iconic ( instead than metaphorics, which was clarified subsequently ) . On the other manus, the other programmer focused on the form of the thenar, which changed from a thenar with curled to consecutive fingers. She interpreted the curling fingers as stand foring the `` fast '' in address, while the consecutive fingers represented the `` quiet, '' and so she coded them as metaphoric. What was stupefying was that none of us thought about construing the same gesture each other 's manner before holding the treatment. Our in agreement place was to category the gestures as iconics, because both of us agreed that it was more common to see such gestures looking along with `` came '' and `` went '' than `` fast '' and `` quiet. ''

In add-on, what the other programmer received before coding might hold affected her. She used my written text of gestures while categorizing the gestures. Although the gestures were described in a descriptive linguistic communication, it was found subsequently that some of the written text was in fact subjective. For illustration, descriptions such as `` the right manus drew a form of flash visible radiation '' or `` the left manus indicated composure '' were already readings and they could be misdirecting to the other programmer.

These jobs non merely predicted what may go on during the cryptography procedure for the chief survey, but besides helped develop the cryptography policy to be used, which is discussed below.

Identifying Gestures

In this survey, `` gesture '' specifically refers to gesticulation. Any thumbing the instructor used to show how to play the recording equipment, or the conducting gestures frequently used while the category was playing the recording equipment were beyond the range of this survey and excluded. The reading of Wang 's gestures was made from the research worker 's position, and it is deserving observing that this might differ from the reading from the talker 's or the addressee 's positions ( A. Cienki, personal communicating, June 3, 2008 ) .

Metaphorics

Metaphorical gestures were defined as gesticulations which present a more abstract referent in footings of a more concrete image and prosecute a cognitive procedure of understanding one thing in footings of something else. This definition dovetails moderately good with Lakoff and Johnson 's conceptual metaphor theory, the theoretical model on which this nowadays survey was built, and at the same clip does non belie the Pragglejaz definition of metaphorically used lexical points applied in the survey ( discussed in subdivision 3.3.2 and subsequently in 6.4.2 ) .

One illustration is when Wang said gangqin de yinse yue lai yue xizhi ( `` the timber of the piano becomes more and more delicate, '' and gestured utilizing a unit of ammunition and half-open thenar confronting up attach toing the word `` delicate. '' Here, the gesture carries the double construction required by a metaphoric, in which the representation of the daintiness of the timber ( a more abstract referent ) by the gesture is presented as what appears to be an image of a bud waiting to open ( a more concrete base ) .

Deictics versus Metaphorics

Both McNeill 's deictics and iconics were re-defined for the present survey. Harmonizing to McNeill, abstract indicating gestures which imply a metaphorical image are besides included in the class of deictics. For illustration, gestures were used in my informations to indicate at an bing physical topographic point, but they referred to as an abstract construct of where the talker had been earlier. When Wang said `` Did we merely say that ornament is popular in Baroque epoch, '' she raised her left index finger to indicate to the `` thought '' which she merely mentioned in the same session. Pragmatically speech production, these gestures were indicating gestures ( deictics ) , but semantically speech production, the topographic point which the gestures pointed to was interpreted as someplace else based on the address context. In other words, such gestures engaged a cognitive procedure of understanding something ( the physical topographic point which the gesture pointed at ) in footings of something else ( the existent infinite or thought which the middleman talked about antecedently ) and hence were classified as metaphoric.

Iconics versus Metaphorics

Gestures in a context where the Vehicle of a metaphor is explicitly flagged both by the custodies and by linguistic communication were classified as iconic. That is, if a instructor says `` music is a container '' and gestures a container, the gesture will be categorised as iconic instead than metaphoric because the gesture may attach to metaphor, but itself represents the actual signifier of the word `` container '' ; nevertheless, if the same gesture accompanies the sentence `` we can experience the unhappiness in his music '' , it will be classified as metaphoric. An effort was therefore made to separate between sign illustrations of verbal metaphors and gestures that were themselves metaphoric. This besides explains why the gesture `` came '' and `` went '' attach toing Wang 's vocalization of journey metaphor, `` the boom came fast and went fast, '' which was discussed before in this subdivision was coded as iconics instead than metaphorics.

4.4.4 Method

After transcribing the address of the whole session, the picture infusion was watched by the two programmers individually, concentrating on merely the gestures. Every gesture Wang used was categorised into one of the three types of gesture: deictic, iconic, and metaphoric. It was decided to group the gestures into merely three classs instead than five ( including beats and cohesives ) because these three classs are more related to the focal point of the survey. Reasons for categorizing the gestures into three instead than two ( metaphorics and nonmetaphorics ) were that these were the three most popular gestures and that distinguishing deictic from iconic gestures would assist supply a better apprehension of what other types of gestures the instructor used along with metaphor in address besides metaphoric gestures.

The 13.5 % dissension of the coding consequences between the two programmers was compared and discussed, until each gesture was classified into one of the three classs. The gestures were so highlighted on the transcript by utilizing three different colorss, to ease denseness and distribution analysis. Finally, maps of the gestures were noted.

4.4.5 Consequences

The continuance of Wang 's direction in the recordings was 46 proceedingss, numbering 8,964 characters transcribed. In the session, 89 gestures were identified ; 43 % were iconics, 30 % metaphorics, and 27 % deictics. Every gesture was categorised. The distribution was such that over 75 % of them fell in the subdivisions on Listening to The Four Seasons ( 42 % ) and the talk on the Baroque epoch ( 35 % ) . Merely 1 % of the gestures occurred in the gap and the recording equipment drama subdivisions.

Deictics

Wang used deictics to indicate at objects. Her superciliums rose when she started the inquiry `` Can you see the word, Baroque, in the text edition '' and looked at the pupils. Her left index finger pointed forwards. Then when Wang said the focal point of the inquiry zhege zi ( `` the word '' ) , she raised her right manus and pointed at the screen behind her with her index finger. When she pronounced the word, `` Baroque, '' she turned her upper organic structure, half confronting the screen and looked for one second at the Chinese characters for `` Baroque '' written on the screen.

Extract 11

[ a? ??‰ c?‹a?° e????¬ ] ???a????? [ ??‰ a?« eˆ™aˆ‹ a­- cs„ aZY?-‡ ] i?YBaroquei????‰??’??‰i?Y

[ Ni you kandao keben ] shibushi [ you xie zhege zi de yuanwen ] ? Baroque, youmeiyou?

[ you have see casebook ] ( Q ) [ have write this word ( DE ) etymology ] Baroque ( Q )

Can you see if the English word, Baroque, is in the text edition?

However, deictics were non ever used to indicate to something concrete. For illustration, when listening to the first motion of The Four Seasons, Wang compared the fiddles ' shake to birds tweet in the spring. When she asked the category to pay attending to a certain portion of the tune, she repeatedly put her index finger of her right manus following to her right ear and pointed to the air. Wang kept reiterating this gesture whenever she tried to pull the category 's attending to the music. Therefore, it appeared to be the music she was indicating at, although it was non concrete, or even seeable at all.

The undermentioned infusion is another illustration of indicating to the unseeable. Wang asked the category if they still remembered what instruments she had mentioned earlier in the same session. The first reply `` cembalo '' came from a pupil and every bit shortly as Wang heard it, she raised her right index finger, indicating. Wang so repeated the reply and gave her response, `` really good. '' It is arguable whether Wang 's finger was indicating to the word, `` cembalo, '' or the pupil who gave the reply, but in either instance the gesture was categorised as deictic.

Extract 12

Thymine: ??‘aˆ‘ a‰›?‰? e?? ?µ?e?? cs„ ??‚a™? ??‰ a“?a?›i?Y

adult females gangcai shuo liuxing de yueqi you naxie

we merely say popular ( DE ) instrument have ( Q )

What are the popular instruments we merely mentioned?

Second: a¤§e?µc??

dajianqin

cembalo

Harpsichord.

Thymine: [ ] a¤§e?µc??i??a??a??i??e‚„??‰ a‘?i?Y

[ ] daijianqin henhao haiyou Ne

[ ] cembalo really good still have Q

[ ] Harpsichord. Very good! What else?

Second: a?¦ ??‚a™?

xian yueqi

threading instrument

Stringing instrument.

Thymine: [ ] a?¦ ??‚a™?i??e?za?? a??i??

[ ] xian yueqi feichang hao

[ ] twine instrument really good

[ ] String instrument. Very nice!

Iconics

Iconics were the most common type of gesture in Wang 's category, and most of them appeared in the talk on the Baroque epoch and The Four Seasons subdivision. Gestures bespeaking Numberss and for presentation frequently fall in this class. For illustration, Wang held both weaponries set in forepart of her thorax, with both thenars confronting the land and put her lingua out, when depicting a puppy sitting lazily in forepart of a house in summer, while listening to the 2nd motion of The Four Seasons: `` Because it 's excessively hot, the doges put their linguas out, right? ''

In the undermentioned illustration, Wang compared the difference between the flute and recording equipment while she was explicating why the recording equipment was translated as zhidi ( `` perpendicular flute '' ) . A flute, nevertheless, is held horizontally by the participant which is why it is besides named hengdi ( `` horizontal flute '' ) in Mandarin Chinese. When she asked the undermentioned inquiry, she used both custodies to copy gestures of both flute and recording equipment participants, to underscore the different waies in which two musical instruments were played.

Extract 13

e•·c¬› a®? ??? [ c›?e‘- a?? ] e‚„ [ ?©«e‘- a?? ] i?Y

changdi Ta shi [ zhizhe chui ] hai [ hengzhe chui ]

flute ( 3SG ) is [ perpendicular blow ] or [ horizontal blow ]

Make you play the flute vertically or horizontally?

The referent of the gestures did non ever appear at the same clip when the referent was uttered in address. In Extract 14, Wang used her right manus to indicate to the pillars in the schoolroom on her right and so left side, when she was speaking about the architecture of the edifices in the school. After she pointed to the pillar on her left side, she used both her pollex and index fingers of the right manus and moved the arm heterosexual and vertically, up down and back up. These gestures were iconics, stand foring `` consecutive lines '' in address.

Next, when she talked about the lines in Baroque edifices, she used her right thenar to do a simple `` U '' curve in the air. Here in gesture, the soft `` U '' curve motion was contrasting with the old gesture of traveling the right pollex and index finger vertically, but in address, the adjectival `` curved '' contrasting with the adjectival `` consecutive '' in the first line did non follow straight until the 3rd line. The gesture preceded the word that related to it semantically. It seemed to back up the hypothesis that although gestures and address were different ocular and verbal elements, someway they were in fact conceptually integrated in an thought unit ( Cienki & A ; Muller, 2008 ; McNeill, 2005 ) .

Extract 14

[ ?Y±a­? ???a????? ] [ e?? ??? c›? c·s??? cs„ ] i?Ya°?a??a°?i?Yc·s??? a?? c°?a-®

[ zhuzi shibushi ] [ dou shi zhi xiantiao de ] duibudui xiantiao biddy kiandan

pillar ( Q ) all are consecutive line ( DE ) ( Q ) line really simple

[ The pillars are ] [ in consecutive lines ] , are n't they? Very simple lines.

a????? a·???›a…‹ ?™‚??Y cs„ ?™‚aˆ™ [ ?ˆZe?????i?Y??”e?? c??e¤‡i??a°?a??a°?i?Y ]

keshi baluoke shiqi de shihou [ zenmeWang bijiao fanfu duibudui ]

but Baroque epoch ( DE ) clip ( Q ) more complicated ( Q )

But how approximately in the Baroque epoch? More complicated, is n't it?

[ c·s??? ??”e?? ?¬? ] ??‰ e?±a¤s cs„ ?›??S? a°?a??a°?i?Y

[ xiantiao bijiao Army Intelligence ] you xuduo de quzhe duibudui

[ line more good ] have many ( DE ) curved ( Q )

[ Lines are, good, ] more curving, are n't they?

Metaphorics

In entire, 30 % of the gestures were metaphorics and it was interesting that metaphorics occurred in about all the eight different schoolroom activities. The lone two exclusions were the gap and stoping comments which Wang made ; Wang used no gestures at all in her gap comments.

SPACE AS TIME

TIME IS AN ENITITY MOVING TOWARD THE SPEAKER is one of the conceptual metaphors shared by both English and Mandarin Chinese. For illustration, in Mandarin Chinese people say shengdanjiei kuailai lupus erythematosus, which means `` Christmas is nearing, '' and xingqitian guo lupus erythematosus means `` Sunday passed. '' Time is so thereby conceptualised as something traveling in infinite, and this can be seen even more clearly with gestures. Extract 15 was from Wang 's session when she introduced the different periods in musical history. She explained the order of the Renaissance and the Baroque. Firstly she raised her left arm, straightened out her five fingers, with the thenar confronting down, at about eyebrow tallness, and so moved her manus down to the tallness of her thorax. The two points in the infinite indicated the two different clip ranges in musical history and TIME is therefore represented as SPACE by the gesture. However, it is interesting in this illustration that clip travelled in different waies in address and gesture ; in address, clip moved toward the talkers, but in the gesture it moved from up to down. In fact, the metaphor the gesture expressed here exists entirely in footings of gesture, non in address ( c.f. , subdivision 7.4.8 ) . That is, one would non state in Mandarin Chinese `` the Baroque is at the underside of the Renaissance '' to intend the same thing.

Extract 15

-‡e-?a?©e?? [ e?Za?† ?‰? ??? a·???›a…‹ ]

wenyifuxing [ guolai cai shi baluoke ]

Renaissance [ come yet is Baroque ]

The Baroque comes after the Renaissance.

SPACE IS IMPORTANCE

Another conceptual metaphor suggested by the gestures is SPACE ( UP ) AS IMPORTANCE. This has a really close relation with the common conceptual metaphor in address: SIZE ( BIG ) AS IMPORTANCE. In Mandarin Chinese, district attorney ( `` large '' ) can be used as an adjectival to depict something of import. In Extract 16, Wang told the category that there were some of import periods in musical history. When she said that `` there are some of import and large periods, '' she lifted up her left arm with her unfastened thenar confronting down, so traveling increasingly downwards, stopped at different highs. Alternatively of ranking the periods from large to little by gestures, she ranked them from up to down. It was another illustration of different metaphors being used in address and co-speech gestures.

Extract 16

eY???‚ ?­·a?? a?S cs„ a?†??Y a-” ??‰ a??aˆ‹ [ e‡?e¦?cs„ a¤§cs„ ?™‚??Y ]

yinyue lishi Shang de fenqi o you jige [ zhongyaode dade shiqi ]

music history up ( DE ) period ( PRT ) have several [ of import large period ]

About the periods in musical history, some are of import and large.

Detached SPACES AS DIFFERENT PARTS OF AN EXPOSITION

Metaphoric gestures which separate different parts of an expounding appeared more than one time, and although in address Wang ever said `` Firstaˆ¦moreoveraˆ¦and thenaˆ¦ , '' she did non ever use the same gestures for them. Sometimes she gestured the Numberss `` one, '' `` two, '' and `` three '' even though she did non verbally say any Numberss. At other times, she merely turned over the other thenar from confronting the land to confronting upwards, when traveling to a new construct or thought in address. Such metaphoric gestures distinguish different parts of an expounding being made as separate ( downwards and upwards, or right and left ) infinites. For illustration, when Wang reviewed the chief points she had mentioned in category about Vivaldi, and asked the category to compose the chief points down in their ain text edition, she said `` firstaˆ¦moreoveraˆ¦and thenaˆ¦ , '' and gestured with her right index finger indicating to different fingers of her left manus, to bespeak alterations of subject.

4.5 Discussion and Conclusion

4.5.1 Classroom Observation

Lesson construction and activities involved

Figure 4.2 shows the comparative sum of clip Wang spent on different activities across the three Sessionss. The two chief activities were recorder playing and a talk on the Baroque epoch, which between them accounted for about 2/3 of the entire clip. Besides Wang spent 15 % of clip listening to The Four Seasons with the category. The two parts where metaphors and gestures were used most frequently were the talk on the Baroque and listening to music, which took more than 2/5 of a session.

Figure 4.2. Pilot survey: Relative clip spent on activities across Wang 's 3 Sessionss.

Gesture usage and schoolroom ambiance

For schoolroom ambiance on the agenda, three degrees were defined: high ( H ) was recorded when the category showed enthusiasm and the dB degree in schoolroom was high. Fair ( F ) was noted when merely a portion of the category responded to the instructor and the remainder remained soundless. Low ( L ) indicated that the category was quiet and seemed non to pay attending to the instructor, or when silence occurred after inquiries. It is of import to observe that the three degrees were comparative instead than absolute.

Figure 4.3. Pilot survey: Gesture frequence and schoolroom atmosphere.

It was assumed that there would be a positive correlativity between the figure of gestures and schoolroom atmosphere. However, the three boxes in Figure 4.3 show the topographic points where the two factors suggest a negative correlativity. It seemed that in the parts of talk where Wang used a certain figure of gestures did non needfully do the category more enthusiastic about their acquisition. One of the possible accounts was that more gestures were made due to the low schoolroom ambiance.

Interviews

Both the interviews I had with Wang before and after the category Sessionss were face to face and semistructured. Most inquiries I had were unfastened inquiries. Making the interview semistructured allowed me to make a more natural talk ambiance without jumping the inquiries to which I wanted replies. The instructor would so be free to speak whatever their feelings and/or ideas were toward certain inquiries. At the same clip, nevertheless, I needed to maintain an oculus on both clip control and interview way to do certain I got the replies to the planned inquiries.

Normally I did non disrupt Wang but tried to direct her dorsum to the subjects when she began to speak something unrelated. By and large talking, Wang 's replies were consistent because she echoed her ain point of positions when giving replies to different inquiries. For illustration, when asked how she prepared to explicate new constructs ( inquiry six ) , she indicated that music did non be entirely and a instructor had to assist pupils construct up the whole context in footings of clip, topographic point, and how people lived and thought at that peculiar clip, in order to understand a piece of music. She emphasised that music and other artistic signifiers such as architecture and humanistic disciplines were closely related, which she kept adverting when replying how she decided if the stuffs were suited for the category ( inquiry five ) and why music instruction was of import to her ( inquiry two ) .

4.5.2 Metaphorical Gestures

Functions of Metaphoric Gestures

In Wang 's Sessionss, different maps of co-speech gestures were examined and the followers were the three chief 1s found: ( a ) to underscore, ( B ) to visualize, and ( degree Celsius ) to put up.

First, gestures helped underscore what Wang wanted to state. Normally underscoring gestures accompanied a verbal look incorporating Numberss, which highlighted different facets of a subject. These gestures could be metaphorics or iconics. They were used when the instructor helped the pupils to either prevue the chief points or reexamine the chief thoughts which were traveling to be introduced. These gestures seemed intended non merely to assist indicate out the of import chief points, but besides to do it easier for the category to follow the instructor 's expounding. Deictics which pointed out the subject being talked about in address besides seemed to underscore points and promote hearers to pay more attending to the subject.

Second, gestures were used to visualize the abstract. Wang made a large horizontal `` S '' form with her left arm when stating the category that the tune they were listening to was depicting the spring zephyr. The metaphoric gesture all of a sudden made the line of the tune seeable. Besides, in Extract 14, Wang drew consecutive lines in the air while she was explicating the simpleness of the school 's edifice compared with Baroque 's complication. These iconics therefore helped visualize the abstract thought of simpleness.

Finally, gestures were used by Wang to show ( positive ) feedback. As shown in Extract 12, alternatively of indicating to any pupil after Wang asked the inquiry to put up a specific pupil to reply, she pointed after hearing the response from the pupils. Almost every bit shortly as she completed the gesture, she repeated the reply from the pupil. It seemed that Wang 's finger was activated by the voice which produced the reply, and the index finger stopped in the air and headed in the way of where precisely the reply had come from. By making so, the attending of the category was drawn to the reply, followed by the positive response, `` really nice, '' made by Wang to the pupil concerned.

Relationss of Metaphoric Gestures and Speech

As the focal point is on metaphor and metaphoric gestures in this survey, Table 4.1 shows the dealingss between vocalizations and co-occurring metaphoric gestures. The consequences support the findings from other surveies in English ( Cienki, 1998 ; Cienki & A ; Muller, 2008 ) .

Table 4.1

Relationss Between Utterance and Co-occurring Metaphoric Gestures

Relationss

Example

Notes

1

The same metaphor expressed in address and gesture

`` The timber of the piano becomes more and more delicate. ''

The gesture depicts a beginning sphere ( `` delicate '' ) in address by a unit of ammunition and half-open thenar confronting up.

2

A metaphor expressed in gestures but non in the co-occurring address

`` Firstaˆ¦moreoveraˆ¦and thenaˆ¦ ''

The index finger of one manus points to the fingers of the other manus. The metaphoric gesture distinguishes different parts of an expounding being made by stand foring them as separate infinites.

3

Different metaphors expressed in address and gesture

`` About the periods in musical history, some are of import and large. '' ( Extract 16 )

Address and gesture portion the same mark sphere of the metaphor ( of import ) , but the beginning sphere is characterised otherwise in address ( large ) and the gesture ( high ) .

4

Metaphors expressed by gestures ne'er appear in lingual signifier in Mandarin Chinese

`` The Baroque comes after the Renaissance. '' ( Extract 15 )

What the gesture expresses here is that `` Baroque is at the underside of the Renaissance. '' Such an look is non usually used in address to intend that the Baroque comes after the Renaissance.

34.6 Deductions for the Main Study

4.6.1 Classroom Observation

Researcher 's function as a non participant

Although my purpose was to maintain the schoolroom as it was before my entry, this was about impossible to make. As shortly as a pupil noticed that there was a alien in the room, things became different. Some pupils reacted to Wang 's inquiries more actively ; some tried to acquire Wang 's attending more enthusiastically than of all time, which I did non gain until Wang indicated the fact in category. Some pupils besides kept turning about during the Sessionss to see what I was making while others were funny about my reaction when a gag was told.

Wang seemed to be natural in forepart of the video-recorder. She rarely looked at the video-recorder and in the three Sessionss I observed for two yearss, no particular reactions because of the presence of the video-recorder were found. Young mentioned that she had been observed for several times by the other instructors ( pilot interview 2 ) , and it might explicate why she looked rather natural in forepart of it.

From the research worker 's point of position, come ining schoolrooms is a necessity for this survey because it allows one to acquire a better thought of the schoolroom ambiance and the context, which can non be wholly caught by watching a videotape, allow entirely an audio tape. However, it can be hard to judge if the information collected are affected due to any camera consequence ( Mackey & A ; Gass, 2005 ) . Classroom observation will stay the chief method of roll uping informations for the chief survey, and farther treatment on its job and how to undertake it in the chief survey is given in subdivision 5.10.

Observation agenda

The observation agenda helped me to track the procedure of each session during and after Sessionss. With the agenda, it was easy to turn up where I was in the session whether I sat in the schoolroom or watched the recorded picture at place. Overall the prepared observation agenda proved easy to tag. The classs ( activity, start and terminal clip, Numberss of lingual metaphor and gesture, participant administration, stuffs, instruments, linguistic communication used, and schoolroom atmosphere ) of the observation agenda were clear, although some needed to be clarified or deleted.

It proved impossible to maintain accurate runs of lingual metaphors and gestures during the three Sessionss, even though I forced myself to seek to make it for a short period of clip during one of the Sessionss. Therefore this was non used for the chief survey.

Some classs need to be redefined. There was a categorization named `` Individual '' in the participant administration subdivision ( see Appendix C ) and when I designed the agenda, I was believing about points where the instructor spent her clip on merely one peculiar pupil. That is, the instructor might travel following to the pupil or inquire the pupil to come to her, doing it clear that a certain period of the instructor 's clip was being devoted to one individual pupil. However, during the three Sessionss, this sort of single administration ne'er happened. Alternatively, another sort of single administration kept looking. Wang would speak to one peculiar pupil in forepart of the whole category. Although the conversation was non limited to the two ( Wang and the pupil ) , it was decided to code it as `` single '' participant administration. It was decided for the chief survey to include both the above types of participant administration as `` single. ''

Classs of images and audio tape confused me at first during the observation. The chief stuff Wang used in her categories was PowerPoint slides, and the slides included non merely text, but images and sounds. It was decided that the categorization `` images '' should be extended non merely to palisade charts or postings, but besides to images provided electronically. The categorization `` audio tape '' was modified to `` audio sound, '' which included sounds whether provided by PowerPoint or by the piano played by Wang in category. In add-on, the categorization `` PowerPoint '' was added. Hence, when Wang showed a image of a Baroque palace via PowerPoint, both classs of `` image '' and `` PowerPoint '' were ticked.

The class of `` schoolroom ambiance '' was deleted for the chief survey because focal points of the survey were modified and schoolroom ambiance was no longer an issue in the chief survey. A modified observation agenda based on the pilot survey for the chief survey is appended ( see Appendix E ) .

Interview inquiries

After the pilot interviews, it was discovered that inquiries six and eight were excessively general for the interviewee to reply. Furthermore, none of the inquiries was about gestures and hence this needed to be added. Besides, for inquiries four, five, and six, alternatively of inquiring the general state of affairs, inquiries were modified to promote the interviewee to reply based on the Sessionss being observed, instead than give general statements which the interviewee thought s/he `` was supposed to make. '' Finally, the order of the inquiries was rearranged to make a better flow of the conversation, although it was ne'er fixed. A list of modified inquiries for the chief survey is appended in Appendix F.

4.6.2 Gesture Coding

Gesture Coding

In this pilot, the other programmer was provided a transcript with both address and gestures. For the chief survey, the other programmer will be provided video cartridge holders and a written text of the instructors ' address merely. S/he needed to transcribe gestures get downing from placing stages of them to avoid the subjective reading of my description of the gestures.

It can be really hard to code gestures without video-recording the Sessionss, and even with the picture, it can still take a batch of clip to reiterate playing one cartridge holder until gestures are decently transcribed. Both ocular and audio information are important, for the former records the motion inside informations without being interpreted into words, while the latter provides the address context. Overall, gesture classs are defined non merely by the manus gesture but besides by the function of gesture within the lingual context. Therefore it is about impossible to code gestures by kinetic motion informations entirely, and it is one of the grounds why gesture cryptography can be both clip and attempt consuming.

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