This study explores the role of embodied practices in pursued elicitation sequences. Data was collected in Chilean secondary EFL classrooms. Analysis follows a multimodal CA Approach. It identifies teachers’ gestures, gaze shifts, and manipulation of teaching materials and explanations, repetitions and designedly incomplete turns in pursuing student relevant next action.
Elicitations are key in achieving pedagogical projects. Teachers deploy a variety of interactional practices during initiation turns and when mobilising and pursuing responses. This paper identifies teachers' multimodal practices to project and pursue student next action in repair sequences. Previous research has focused on the kinds of initiation turns in IRF sequences and the actions behind the third turn (Hall 2007; Lee, 2007; Waring 2009; Park 2013); however, the role of embodied practices still needs attention, especially in projecting and pursuing student-next action, attending to contingencies, and returning to the main course of action (pedagogical project) after repair/feedback (Kasper 1985; Nassaji 2015; Hall 2019). Analysis follows a multimodal CA approach (SSJ 1974; Mondada 2006). Data was collected in Chilean secondary EFL classrooms and consists of five hours of classroom talk during a jigsaw picture-story task. Teaching materials (TM) included flashcards (pictures, no text), whiteboards, and slides. Results show that student-next action is pursued at different sequential slots through gaze shifts and gestures, manipulation of TMs, repetitions, explanations and through designedly incomplete Utterances (DIUs) (Koshik 2002). These are initiation turns which teachers put on hold and which students need to complete in the next sequential slot. Teachers' embodied practices at these TRPs are key in projecting student-turn completion. For example, through gaze shifts and iconic and pantomimic (McNeill 1992) gestural productions, teachers 'complete' the turn put on hold and animate elements from the 'static' TMs. In repair sequences, these practices evidence teachers' orientation towards trouble. This study complements current state of knowledge on multimodal practices in general, and DIUs in particular (Lerner 1993; Koshik 2002; Margutti 2010; Chazal 2015; Hazel and Mortensen 2019), and sheds light on teachers' embodied interactional and educational practices to secure the relevant-next action.
