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“It's cookin' now”: A performance analysis of the speech events of a Black teacher in an urban community college

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Michèle Foster
Michèle Foster
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
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Abstract

Ethnographic research conducted in the classroom of a Black woman teacher in an urban community college reveals the presence of two distinct but culturally appropriate ways of speaking. Drawing on performance theory, this article analyzes two speech events through which the teacher establishes and maintains congruent face-to-face interaction. It compares the speech events and discusses their effect on student participation and the interpretations and meanings that the participants attach to each. (Performance, ways of speaking, speech events, ethnography of communication)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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