Convergent Goal Relation In Classroom Interaction

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

As has been mentioned, there are three kinds of goal relations, i.e. goal-convergent relation, goal-neutral relation and goal-conflicting relation. However, the goal-convergent relation plays the dominant role in classroom interaction. This is mostly because such an institutional setting as a classroom has the cooperative atmosphere. Teachers will organize their lectures according to the pre-determined goals of a certain curriculum and students attend those lectures to learn what the curriculum has to offer. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to state that the teacher and students have compatible goals and that the goal-adopted interaction is thus dominant in classrooms. A close examination of the teacher-student interaction in the two courses has confirmed the point. For example:

S：教授，您好！我想请问，您能不能再给我们说一下关于歌剧序曲的情况？

T：这个歌剧序曲呢，我刚才已经说了。歌剧序曲在歌剧前面有一段音乐。这时候你们要特别注意在听歌剧的时候或者看舞剧的时候，大幕没有拉开，音乐就响起了。有的同学或者有的观众不太熟悉，可能还不知道怎么回事，这个大幕还没拉开，怎么音乐就响起了。有的时候这个音乐响的时间很长，这时候已经序曲开始了。像我们很多歌剧都是这样，像这个威尔第的《茶花女》前面会有大段序曲，这时候幕并没有拉开。幕不拉开，有些听歌剧听得多的同学，可能就知道，就是很习惯，灯一暗下来，指挥一出来，音乐一响，说明这个歌剧已经开始了。歌剧的开始不是以拉开幕为准，是以音乐响起为准。所以歌剧序曲在歌剧当中是很重要的一部分。以后我们在欣赏歌剧的时候，在观看歌剧的时候，我们就应该知道，歌剧前面是有序曲的，不是我们还在那儿说话，音乐响它的，然后大幕拉开了歌剧才开始。实际上，序曲已经是在预示着歌剧开始了。所以，这个，这是歌剧序曲更深一层的东西。

......

(Episode 3)

In this example, the student asks for more information on opera overtures and the teacher adopts this goal. This is a compatible goal because the episode focuses on introducing opera overtures.

(b)

(Music playing)

T: Okay. So what happened there when the brasses came in? How did that relate to the first movement? Yes?

S: Four notes?

T: Four notes, something as simple as that, same rhythmic idea, so that’s the use of a motive there and that’s how these movements are tied together a little bit. Let’s go on to the finale now...

(Episode 2)

(c)

...

(music playing)

T: Okay. Give me one pretty straightforward way this happened. What did he do there? Yes, young lady out there please.

S: Crescendo?

T: Okay, crescendo. From beginning to end?

S: Got louder, then softer.

T: Yeah, so like a giant wedge. That’s why the cart seems to move in front of you, so we’re talking about musical volume here...

(Episode 2)

The above two examples are taken from Lecture 2 of Listening to Music which aims to introduce basic music terminology, orchestral instruments and acoustics. Both the teacher and the students are cooperating to achieve the goal in this teaching episode.

In sum, the two music appreciation courses show no difference as to the dominance of goal-convergent relations.

4.2 Goal System Analysis

Liao Meizhen (2005c) holds that a speech activity consists of more than one speech act and thus has a "super goal" under which there are some "sub-goals." They form a goal system. Sub-goals serve the general goal in a direct or indirect manner and hence are controlled by the general goal.

The two courses in the study are oriented towards music appreciation which is the general goal. Under the general goal of music appreciation, lectures which represent different sub-goals are carefully organized and presented in the classroom. Entering the World of Symphonies covers a wide range of topics on symphonies such as musical instruments, organization of an orchestra, overtures, preludes, concertos, ensembles and orchestral conducting, etc. Similarly, Listening to Music discusses different musical instruments, genres of music including jazz, pop and symphony, musicians such as Mozart, Bach and Debussy, fundamentals such as beat, meter and rhythm, etc.

Furthermore, each lecture can be viewed as its general goal under which there are many sub-goals also known as teaching items. As the importance of classroom interaction has been introduced in the literature review, teacher-student interactions should either represent or serve the sub-goals of a certain lecture. Therefore, the goal system of a certain lecture can be revealed through the interactive periods in it. To exemplify, an episode from each of the two courses is analyzed respectively.

（演奏完毕）

T：好，这个曲子跟刚才两个曲子完全不一样，我不知道大家感悟没感悟到春天，你应该感悟到春天的气息，很优美很壮阔，给我们很多遐想的空间。嗯，我们还有一点时间，看看能不能提些问题。好！（示意举手同学提问）

S：老师，您好！我想问一下，就是现在古组曲还有没有在创作？

T：好。他问的问题是目前的创作动向。古组曲这个形式呢，发展到最高峰是巴赫，巴赫以后就很少再有人严格地按照古组曲的形式进行创作了。但是在20世纪之后，有一个流派叫新古典主义，他们提出要返回到巴赫，所以有的人也用古组曲的形式在创作，但是它仅仅接纳了它的结构形式，在内容表现方面并不排斥现代的作曲技法，所以严格地按照古组曲形式来作曲的人已经不是很多了，但作为学校训练可能要作。嗯，一般的组曲，都是我们现在这种形式，就是现代的组曲，就是刚才我们说的这五种可能，按照这种情况去作曲的。大概是这样的情况。好，还有没有？

S：老师，您好！我想问一下现代的组曲在音乐会上演奏得还多不多？

T：好，请坐！她问的是一个演出的环境。刚才是一个创作的环境。现代的组曲演出的还是比较多的。因为组曲这种形式，一个是对于观众的欣赏比较容易，因为我们观众，尤其是我们现在的听众，在时间非常繁忙的情况下，很难静下心来听一首大部头的交响曲。一般大部头的交响曲要听完就是35分钟到50分钟，就一口气停下来恐怕很难。不是说不想听，而是没有那种心境去听，都很忙，忙得没有心思去考虑这个。但是组曲呢，因为它是一段一段的，容易给人一种间歇的遐想空间。所以组曲在音乐会上会经常听到，而且几乎每一场都有组曲的片段或者组曲的完整出现。特别是组曲在普及交响乐的过程当中，组曲是一个非常好的体裁。我们青年交响乐团，在完成教育部的这个"高雅艺术进校园"的活动中，我们进入到广东省各个大学的时候，也是，组曲是我们必须演奏的曲目，而且也容易介绍也容易被大家接受。所以组曲在交响音乐会上还是能够经常听到的。

(Episode 5)

Suite

Do we still hear suite in modern orchestral concerts?

Are ancient suites still being composed?

Graph Two: The Goal System

Graph 2: Goal System of the Chinese course

In the above example, two questions concerning the form of suite are asked by two students, i.e. "Are ancient suites still being composed?" and "Do we still hear suite in modern orchestral concerts?" And the professor takes the two questions to present more information on suite.

According to the overview of the first lecture of Listening to Music, the professor introduces the course and draws the music examples from the works by Beethoven, Debussy and Strauss to introduce the issues that the course will explore in more depth in the rest of the lectures ("Introduction," 2012). Due to the fact that the transcript can go on for several pages, the author has taken out some extracts containing teacher-student interactions in order to reveal part of the goal system in this lecture.

T: ... So I'm going to tell you a lot about classical music in here: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven. It will be the locus of our course. How many of you already listen to classical music? ... I'd be interested to know, gentleman down there, how do you do this? Is it streaming off of your computer? Are you downloading mp3 files and saving them? How--Tell me. How do you do it?

S: I just go to YouTube.

T: You go to YouTube. All right. Very interesting. I should have known that but I didn't. You go to YouTube and you listen there. Anybody else do it a different way? Yes?

S: On the radio.

T: On the radio. Okay. That's interesting. We'll come back to that point. Anything else, anybody? Yes?

S: My parents' CDs or records.

T: Okay. Your parents' CDs or records. That's wonderful...Why do you like to listen and why would you want to listen to classical music?

S: It relaxes me.

T: Okay. Very interesting...

(Episode 1)

Here, the teacher ends the interaction with the students and begins to talk about the significance and the syllabus of the course. This monologic discourse is believed to have been facilitated by the interaction. On one hand, the teacher-student interaction helps maintain the students’ focus on the lecture and more important, set the tone for the teaching of the course as there are many rich interactive sequences in each lecture. On the other hand, the student response to the last question is used by the teacher to move smoothly on to talk about the significance of listening to music in general and then to the aim of his course.

T:...We're going to have a diagnostic quiz and you are taking a quiz the first day. ... [music playing] Okay. So let's--I'm going to ask them to queue the next piece here while we talk about that just for a moment. The composer--Anybody know the composer of this? Raise your hand. Okay. Some people do. Some people don't. Gentleman over here, in the dark shirt.

S: Beethoven?

T: Okay. That is Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven, and do you know the name of the piece?

Student: Fifth Symphony?

...

T: ...What's--what's the--in what composition does Beethoven use this particular piece? Does anybody know? Gentleman here?

S: Ninth Symphony.

T: Okay. In the Ninth Symphony again and you're saying, "Oh, I'm getting really worried now." Don't be worried here. Okay. So Ninth Symphony...

...

T: ...What's the direction generally of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony? [music playing]

S: Down.

T: Down. It's generally going down. ... [music playing] Anybody know that piece and the name of the composer? Yeah?

S: Debussy.

T: Okay. Debussy, a French composer writing at the end of the nineteenth century in the Impressionist style... [music playing] Now how do you feel about that? Anybody want to tell me about that?

S: serene.

T: I beg your pardon. Oops, I heard--Nice and loud please.

S: Serene?

T: Serene. Yeah, serene. Why does it feel serene? ... (back to monologic discourse)

(Episode 1)

In the above extract, the teacher poses a question to the students after some music playing. In this way, he introduces some works of the musicians that they will learn more about in the following of the course. Additionally, he uses questions to elicit student response to elaborate on some key musical concepts, as is indicated by the last question. In sum, the goal system for the two extracts is as follows.

Lecture 1: Introduction to the Course

Some Topics of the Course

The Significance of the Course

...

Why does it feel that way?

Why do you listen to classical music?

How do you listen to classical music?

What is the name of the composer?

How do you feel about that piece?

Graph 3: Goal System of the American course

As questioning is the main strategy for initiating interactions, the number of questions asked in each lecture is able to demonstrate the complexity of its goal system. Therefore, the exemplified two goal systems show that the American course is more complex than the Chinese one. The number of questions including teacher and student questions asked in all the researched episodes is as follows. The issue of questioning as a goal realization strategy will be discussed later.

Entering the World of Symphonies (A)

Listening to Music (B)

Total

(A:B)

Teacher Question

Student Question

Teacher Question

Student Question

Lecture 1

0

2

31

1

2:32

Lecture 2

0

2

13

0

2:13

Lecture 3

0

2

1

1

2:2

Lecture 4

0

2

9

0

2:9

Lecture 5

0

2

19

0

2:19

Lecture 6

0

2

12

0

2:12

Lecture 7

0

2

5

2

2:7

Lecture 8

0

2

16

0

2:16

Lecture 9

0

0

7

1

0:8

Lecture 10

0

2

14

0

2:14

Lecture 11

1

2

10

0

3:10

Lecture 12

0

1

12

0

1:12

Lecture 13

0

2

21

1

2:22

Total

1

23

170

6

24:176

Table 2: The Total Number of Questions Asked in the Researched Lectures

4.2.1 Top-down Goal Analysis

According to Liao (2005b), adopting a top-down goal organization pattern or a bottom-up goal organization depends on interactive relations and strategies. A top-down goal organization pattern is usually direct as to making the goal explicit while a bottom-up goal organization pattern reveals the focal goal gradually by fulfilling other lesser goals. However, as it has been argued that the goals of the teacher and students are compatible, the choice between the two goal organization patterns in a classroom setting is only a matter of finding the best way to teach or learn.

(a)

......

T：下面我们先听一首音乐会的管乐曲，就是《五声神韵》。《五声神韵》是由中国不同地区的民歌改变而成，改编的作者叫王和声。你们可以听一下，你们在听音乐欣赏课的时候，一定给你们讲过中国的民歌。你们听听这里面有哪几首中国的民歌，由几首民歌组成，一会儿我要问。第一个答不上来我问第二个，第二个答不上来我问第三个，第三个答不上来我问第四个，总之要问出一个来。所以你们听的时候要动脑子，看由几首民歌组成，哪些民歌重复了。好，下面我们就听这首作品。

（演奏进行中）

T：一共几首民歌？几个？啊？（惊讶）一共几个？没人回答啊？啊？（没听清）

五个，有人说五个。

六个，七个。（重复同学的回答）

六个跟七个的都对。这里的民歌一共走了七首，其中有一首是重复的。最后一首和第一首是重复的。《天下黄河九十九道弯》这是重复的。形成了一个框架。以后听作品就得这样听。好，这是《五声神韵》......

(Episode 11)

(b)

T: .. Music is a language and it is made up of a syntax, and syntax, you know, consists of phrases and the order in which those phrases occur. But maybe even before we can recognize the syntax of music, we have to figure out what a phrase is. So to do that we've got to be able to count measures. How do we do this? Well, musicians, again, have developed the following sort of process. Let's say oftentimes orchestral musicians, they're sitting there and they're not playing so they have to be able to count for a long period of time. So they'd be going along in this fashion--let's say it's duple--one-two, two-two, three-two, four-two. They're just adding integers on each down beat. It's a very simple idea...So that's what we're going to do. We're going to hear Louis Armstrong himself play. What instrument did Louis Armstrong play?

S: Trumpet.

T: Trumpet, yeah...So we're going to hear a solo by Louis Armstrong now and let's count along once the phrase begins. I'll get you started and then you count the measures... [music playing] One-two, two-two. Go ahead. And then he disappears. So how many bars did you count there? How long was the phrase that Louis Armstrong played?

S: Eight measures.

T: Eight measures? Everybody agree with that? Anybody say seven? Better say eight in music...How long is this solo? How long is this phrase here by Johnny Dodds? [music playing] Here we go: one-two, two-two. [music playing]

S: Sixteen.

T: Sixteen, so twice as long, but that's sort of good news...

(Episode 4)

In the above two examples, the questions asked by the teachers are test questions with predetermined answers. Before posing the test questions, the teachers have already elaborated on some key knowledge points or assumed that the students have such knowledge. Therefore, test questions are employed to test students’ understanding of the knowledge points that the teacher aims to teach. In this case, top-down goal organization pattern is direct in achieving the goal of the teacher and ensuring students’ learning. Furthermore, interactions initiated by teachers’ test questions follow the basic pattern of IRF.

In addition, students usually adopt the top-down goal organization pattern in teacher-student interactions.

(a)

（演奏完毕）

T：不知道大家听出来没有。就是两个形成很强烈的对比。演奏者可能有点紧张，他们比较紧张，因为这个要求演奏得很细致，作为我们来说应该要求得非常细致。这个作品从技术上来说没什么难度，但是在和走上要求很细致。大家有什么问题没有？

好，你说！（示意台下同学发言）

S：老师，您好！我想问一下交响诗的诗意是否跟文学作品有关呢？

T：交响诗的诗意啊。我们说交响诗的诞生最初是跟文学作品有关的。因为李斯特在创立交响诗这种新的体裁形式时主要是根据文学作品，但是以后的交响诗慢慢就脱离了文学作品。有时候它是根据一个传说，或者是根据一幅画，都有可能写成交响诗，所以这就是为什么交响诗之后会产生交响音画，但主要来说，文学作品是交响诗产生的一个最根本的东西，因为在浪漫主义时期，很重要的一点就是浪漫主义时期的音乐家开始特别注意和姐妹艺术之间的联系，这种联系使得浪漫主义的音乐向更多方面发展......

(Episode 8)

(b)

T:..This is a beginning course. I assume that you know nothing, starting from ground zero here and build it up. All right. I've talked--I've droned on here. Let me ask you if you have questions about the course in general and do you have questions of me at this point? Yes, the gentleman in the back.

S: What are the formats of the tests?

T: The formats of the tests will be very clearly laid out for you. There'll be a little bit of written work. There'll be a fair amount of listening. You will be given a list of pieces that you'll have to prepare for a little bit and then we will play out of those particular pieces, but most importantly, I will give you a prep sheet. Each test comes in advance with a prep sheet telling you how to get ready for that particular test. Good question though. Thank you...

(Episode 1)

The two illustrations here show that students are direct with the goal in their questioning. This is because questioning opportunities are given by the teacher and that students should not waste any time being roundabout. Therefore, the top-down goal organization pattern is adopted. The interaction pattern is IR considering a student question as the initiation strategy.

4.2.2 Bottom-up Goal Analysis

Unlike the forensic discourse where the questioner hides his or her goal by asking indirect questions and attaining it when the answerer finds it out too late (Liao, 2005b), the teacher adopts the bottom-up goal organization pattern to maintain students’ interest and focus by feeding them with what they are familiar with and then move on to the goal in the lecture. As the Chinese course in the study lacks such data in this respect, the example is selected from the American course.

T: ... [music playing] Okay. Give me one pretty straightforward way this happened. What did he do there? Yes, young lady out here please.

S: Crescendo?

T: Okay, crescendo. From beginning to end?

S: Got louder, then softer.

T: Yeah, so like a giant wedge, that's why the cart seems to move in front of you, so we're talking about musical volume here. It started very quietly, it built up to this huge center in which we had the bass drum pounding away there and the snare drum coming in to give the effect that the entire earth is rattling at that particular point, and then as it passed by you--the thunder passed by you--and off it went into the distance, quietly into the distance...but how did that happen?...Any thoughts about that? Yes?

S: The instrumentation?

T: Yes, the instrumentation. Can you elaborate on that?

S: Yeah. It starts with low instruments and then moves to higher ones, and then back to low ones.

T: Great. Right. So there's a kind of wedge shape with regard to the instruments too. He started with the lowest instruments and then goes to the high instruments and then back to low instruments at the end...what Musorgsky knew there was a very basic principle of acoustics, and what is that principle? Yeah?

S: Doppler principle.

T: I beg your pardon?

S: Doppler principle.

T: Well, to some extent...(back to monologic discourse)

(Episode 2)

This example is taken from the last part of Lecture Two in the American course where the professor lectures on acoustics. Here, the professor interacts with some students via teacher questioning so that he can lead them on to some laws in acoustics. The monologic discourse after the interactions focuses on explaining dissonance and consonance.

Furthermore, the interactional pattern of IRFRF is found in the American course. Take the shortened version of the above discourse as an example.

T: ...but how did that happen? ... Any thoughts about that? Yes? (Initiation)

S: The instrumentation? (Response)

T: Yes, the instrumentation. Can you elaborate on that? (Comment + Uptake)

S: Yeah. It starts with low instruments and then moves to higher ones, and then back to low ones. (Response)

T: Great. Right. (Feedback)

(Episode 2)

4.2.3 Diversity of Interactional Patterns

Although the two courses share the basic interactional pattern of IRF, the two differ in the F move. By examining all the interactional data in the researched episodes, the American course demonstrates a higher diversity in interactional patterns. The diversity of interactional patterns of the two courses is presented as follows.

Initiated by

Entering the World of Symphonies

Student

IR

S：老师，您好！我想问一下，中国管弦乐小品和国外的管弦乐小品在演奏上有什么区别呢？

T：好，请坐！她提的这个问题有点专业。中国的管弦乐小品，因为中国的音阶是五声音阶，跟国外的七声音阶不太一样，所以在演奏上音准控制比较难，所以我们刚才演奏《山丹丹开花红艳艳》的时候，在音准上就比较难把握，当然这跟乐队的作曲家的配器也有关系。因为它的五声音阶在音准上跟国外的不太一样，所以在处理上会有一些不同......

(Episode 10)

Teacher

IRF(Comment-Statement)

T：一共几首民歌？几个？啊？（惊讶）一共几个？没人回答啊？啊？（没听清）五个，有人说五个。六个，七个。（重复同学的回答）六个跟七个的都对。这里的民歌一共走了七首，其中有一首是重复的。最后一首和第一首是重复的。《天下黄河九十九道弯》这是重复的。形成了一个框架。以后听作品就得这样听......

(Episode 11)

Diversity

IR, IRF(C-S)

Table 3: The Diversity of Interactional Patterns in the Chinese Course

Initiated by

Listening to Music

Student

IR

S: What are the formats of the tests?

T: The formats of the tests will be very clearly laid out for you...

(Episode 1)

Teacher

IRF(Comment-Statement)

T: ...What do you have to have to make something a song?

S: Lyrics.

T: Lyrics? You’ve got to have a text and so we don’t have. In 80% of classical music, we don’t have lyrics; we don’t have a text...

(Episode 2)

IRF(Comment-Question) RF

T: ...but how did that happen? ...Any thoughts about that? Yes?

S: The instrumentation?

T: Yes, the instrumentation. Can you elaborate on that?

S: Yeah. It starts with low instruments and then moves to higher ones, and then back to low ones. T: Great. Right.

(Episode 2)

IRF(Comment)

T: ...Can anybody tell me the name of a better-known opera by Puccini?

S: Tosca.

T: Tosca, yes.

(Episode 6)

IRF (Statement)

T: ...Why do we change chords? Yeah.

S: Melody?

T: Because the melody changes and not all harmonies are concordant with every note...

(Episode 6)

Diversity

IR, IRF (C-S), IRF (C-Q) RF, IRF (C), IRF (S)

Table 4: The Diversity of Interactional Patterns in the American Course

4.3 Goal and Discourse Cohesion

Most of the previous discourse analysis studies discourse cohesion through examining the so-called cohesive links such as reference, lexical connections, verb tenses. However, they are not sufficient to make sense of what we read (Yule, 1996). Under the Goal Analysis Model, language forms are not crucial as to judging the cohesion between speech acts and the general goal. According to Liao (2005b), as long as the discourse aims to accomplish the general goal through a certain goal system, then it is cohesive; otherwise, it is not.

In the section of Goal System Analysis, the two examples from the two courses (Graph 2 and Graph 3) also serve to demonstrate the cohesion between interactions and course goals. Here, more examples will be presented.

S：呃......很多时候去听那个音乐会，都听到那些歌剧序曲，是不是其实那些歌剧序曲，也是可以拿出来单独演奏的？

T：好，请坐！说明我们同学还是经常去听音乐会的。这个，歌剧序曲呢，后来有很多是单独拿出来演奏，像莫扎特的《费加罗的婚礼》序曲，就单独拿出来演奏。像我们刚才听的《后空诱逃》的序曲也在音乐会上演奏。因此呢，序曲演奏就形成了两种，一种是专门为音乐会而写的序曲，一种就是歌剧本身的序曲。它作为一个独立的音乐节目拿出来演奏，有很多是非常完整的，就像我们刚才说的莫扎特的，像刚才那个《地狱中的奥尔菲》一样，作曲家重新把它编写，形成一个音乐会的东西，有时候专门为歌剧写的序曲和音乐会写的序曲有时已经很难界定这个序曲到底是为了什么......

(Episode 3)

This example comes from Lecture 3 of the Chinese course devoted to preludes. The student attending the lecture shares the goal and thus asks this relevant question. Moreover, the professor answers with concrete examples and gives a substantial explanation in order to attain the goal of introducing preludes in this lecture.

T: ...Let’s go on now to talk about chord progression. Anybody want to do--What’s your understanding of what a chord progression is? If I said "chord progression"--I think we have that term up on the board today. What is a chord progression? I--Let’s see. Are you going to? Yeah, fire away.

S: (inaudible)

T: Nice and loud, a little bit louder. I couldn’t hear.

S: A sequence of chords that sound good together?

T: ...Okay. Good. Excellent. A sequence of chords that sound good together, kind of make sense together... How do we hear chord progressions?...

(Episode 8)

This example is taken from Lecture 8 of the American Course where the professor teaches students how to listen for bass patterns in order to understand harmonic progressions. Therefore, the interaction in the example is in accord with the goal and the monologic discourse afterwards consists of music listening exercises and the professor’s explanations.

4.4 Linguistic Strategy in Teacher-Student Interaction

"Talking, or using language expressively and/or communicatively in general, consists in the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for linguistic or extra-linguistic reasons" (Verschueren, 2009: 2). When speakers are making choices, they are choosing their linguistic strategies. According to the Principle of Goal Direction, choices of linguistic strategies are motivated by the speakers’ goals. Besides, analysis of any linguistic strategy should be closely related to the goal behind it (Liao, 2005b). In teacher-student interactions, the strategies employed by the two parties are different.

4.4.1 Linguistic Strategies Employed by the Teacher

The classroom interactions in the two courses demonstrate that the teacher plays the role of interaction initiator through requestives and direct questions.

(a)

T：......下面我们还有点时间，我们提两个问题啊，就两个人提问题啊，啊，有没有？

好！（示意举手同学提问）你说下！

S：教授，您好！就是，我们都知道勃拉姆斯，是一名德国的著名作曲家，那就是，我想问下，教授，就是他为什么去写《匈牙利舞曲》？

T：好，请坐！这个问题呢牵扯到一个文化背景的问题，德国人怎么写《匈牙利舞曲》呢？实际上，当时啊，欧洲对匈牙利的看法，还停留在一个我刚才讲的吉普赛人上，他们写的东西呢，实际上是，吉普赛人一个流浪的大篷车式生活的吉普赛人的舞蹈，还不是我们严格意义上的匈牙利......

(Episode 4)

(b)

T: ... Any questions about that fugue by J. S. Bach? Anybody wants to ask anything about that? ...

S: At the very end that’s a total of what? Four notes being played at once?

T: Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that out...

(Episode 13)

(c)

T：一共几首民歌？几个？啊？（惊讶）一共几个？没人回答啊？啊？（没听清）

五个，有人说五个。

六个，七个。（重复同学的回答）

六个跟七个的都对。这里的民歌一共走了七首，其中有一首是重复的。最后一首和第一首是重复的。《天下黄河九十九道弯》这是重复的。形成了一个框架。以后听作品就得这样听。好，这是《五声神韵》......

(Episode 11)

(d)

T: ...Why would a composer want to add more notes at the end? I think it’s a pretty straightforward idea. David? Michael, yeah.

S: They make it louder.

T: Yeah, just make it louder, make it more sonorous...

(Episode 13)

Here, to initiate interactions with students, the teachers use requestives in the former two examples and direct questioning in the latter two.

Apart from the two initiation strategies illustrated above, the teacher also gives response to student questions or feedback to students’ responses to his or her questions. On the basis of the classroom discourse in the two courses, the teacher will make the best use of a response to student questioning either by giving more relevant information on the topic concerned or gradually shifting to a section of monologic discourse on other topics. Similarly, the use of teacher feedback is usually followed by a detailed explanation from which the teacher will move on to other topics in the lecture.

(a)

T：好，现在还有一点时间，看有什么问题没有？

好，你请讲！（示意同学提问）

S：老师，您好！我想问一下，中国管弦乐小品和国外的管弦乐小品在演奏上有什么区别呢？

T：好，请坐！她提的这个问题有点专业。中国的管弦乐小品，因为中国的音阶是五声音阶，跟国外的七声音阶不太一样，所以在演奏上音准控制比较难，所以我们刚才演奏《山丹丹开花红艳艳》的时候，在音准上就比较难把握，当然这跟乐队的作曲家的配器也有关系。因为它的五声音阶在音准上跟国外的不太一样，所以在处理上会有一些不同。另外，中国作品在风格上也跟国外的作品不太一样，所以我们刚才听到特别是加入了一些民间的民族乐器。这些民族乐器有一个专业术语就是律制，律制跟小提琴跟西洋管弦乐队，律制上是有冲突的。但是，如何调和这些冲突有两方面，一个是作曲家在写作的时候，他就注意这些冲突；一个是演奏家在演奏的时候在音准上做一些调整，才能把这些不足弥补回来......

(Episode 10)

(b)

S: What are the formats of the tests?

T: The formats of the tests will be very clearly laid out for you. There'll be a little bit of written work. There'll be a fair amount of listening...All right. Let's start with a little bit of classical music here and this engages questions one and two...

(Episode 1)

In the first example, the Chinese professor answers the student question with a lot of detailed information. The teacher answer can also serve as a recitation which presents the knowledge on the topic concerned. In the second example, the American professor goes on to talk about some classical music to be covered in the course after answering the student’s question.

(c)

T：一共几首民歌？几个？啊？（惊讶）一共几个？没人回答啊？啊？（没听清）

五个，有人说五个。

六个，七个。（重复同学的回答）

六个跟七个的都对。这里的民歌一共走了七首，其中有一首是重复的。最后一首和第一首是重复的。《天下黄河九十九道弯》这是重复的。形成了一个框架。以后听作品就得这样听。好，这是《五声神韵》......下面，我们再一首呢，是根据我国的民歌改编的......(进入下一演奏环节)

(Episode 11)

(d)

T: ... [plays piano] What's it doing there? [plays piano] What is that? What's the relationship there?

S: Is it inverting it?

T: Yeah, it's just inverting it. It is taking the intervals and flipping them and that's what composers love to do with fugues, and I'll be talking about interchangeable parts, reciprocal relationships with the mathematical quality of fugues. And so that's what's happening here. We have a moment of melodic inversion. And sometimes in fugues--and Bach's did this in the musical offering--he can take his fugue subject and run it backwards from beginning to end so they like to have these kind of mathematical permutations of these intervals...Now what we're about to hear next is something of a surprise because we get a second fugue subject...

(Episode 13)

The above two examples where the professors give feedback to students’ responses to their questions indicate that the teacher moves on to his or her teaching after giving some feedback and a detailed explanation of the answer to the question. In this way, the goal reflected in the teacher-student interaction will be attained as well as the goal in the recitation followed.

4.4.2 Linguistic Strategies Employed by Students

On the basis of the study of the data in the two courses, students in classroom interaction play the role of a passive cooperator as they only respond in two ways, i.e. answering teacher questions and asking student questions upon a teacher’s request. Both can be regarded as a response given in the teacher-student interaction. More importantly, never has a student in the two courses raised a question without a teacher’s request.

(a)

（演奏完毕）

T：这曲子很富于中国的民间色彩。我们现在看看同学们有什么问题。

好，你说一下！（示意举手同学提问）

S：老师，您好！我想知道，管乐队为什么会有那么多的单簧管。

T：好！你很专业！请坐！

这个管乐队的单簧管，它相当于管弦乐队的旋律声部。这个单簧管、长笛都是管弦乐队当中的弦乐声部。当然了，从弦乐声部来说，它又分为几个层次，比方说，我们后面看到的单簧管是低音单簧管......

(Episode 11)

(b)

T: ... Are there questions about that? Does that seem straightforward enough? We have a big picture of genre here, movements within genre, and then forms informing each of the movements. Yes.

S: Did you say that the ternary form is normally used for the second movement?

T: No. I said it’s possible that it is--could be--used for the second movement...

(Episode 9)

The two examples here show that the act of student questioning only takes place when the teacher has requested it. In this way, the act is viewed as a kind of response to the teacher’s request. Therefore, the role of students in classroom interaction is a passive cooperator.

4.4.3 Dialogic Value and Dialogic Density

In Chapter Three, the Dialogic Values Scale has been introduced and its potential of contribution to classroom interaction has been explained. As questioning is the main interaction-initiation strategy, it is safe to say that the number of questions generates a direct proportion of classroom interaction. However, test questions do not serve to explore students’ ideas despite its usefulness to classroom teaching. The Dialogic Values Scale is thus employed to reflect the level of the interactions that truly represent exchange of ideas between the teacher and students. Some examples will be shown as follows to demonstrate question coding according to the scale.

Examples

Dialogic Value

S：老师，您好！我想问下，我听说交响乐团中有双管编制和三管编制，请问这是为什么？

T：好，请坐！这位同学提了一个很专业的问题。交响乐队组成按其比例会有单管乐队、双管乐队、三管乐队甚至四管乐队。它的比例的构成主要是依据管乐的配置......

(Episode 1)

DV = 8.

This is an authentic student question without an uptake and requires a higher order of thinking as indicated by "Why." In coding student questions, teachers’ feedback will not be taken into account. Whether its evaluative level is high or low, it does not affect the coding of the student question according to the scale.

T：一共几首民歌？几个？啊？（惊讶）一共几个？没人回答啊？啊？（没听清）

五个，有人说五个。

六个，七个。（重复同学的回答）

六个跟七个的都对......

(Episode 11)

DV = 0.

This is a test question.

T: ... Anybody know the composer of this?...

S: Beethoven?

T: Okay. That is Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven, and do you know the name of the piece?

S: Fifth Symphony?

T: Okay...

(Episode 1)

DV1 = 0

It is a test question with a standard answer.

DV2 = 2.

It is a test question with an uptake.

T: ... Anybody who can define pedal point for us?...

S:The bass holds a note (inaudible)

T: Yeah. The bass holds a note and basically... Anybody wants to ask anything about that?...

S: At the very end that’s a total of what? Four notes played at once?

T: Oh, okay. Good. Yeah...Why would you imagine a composer would want to do that... Frederick?

S: (inaudible) pieces at one time.

T: Well, no, it’s not that hard because you--once you get used to the idea of a C major triad...

(Episode 13)

DV1= 0

It is a review question.

DV = N/A.

This only functions as a strategy to get students into classroom learning but does not involve learning directly.

DV2 = 8

This is an authentic student question.

DV3 = 8

This is an authentic teacher question with a higher cognitive level but a lower evaluative level indicated by the teacher feedback that followed it.

T: ... How many of you already listen to classical music? Raise your hand. Okay. Great...how do you do this? Is it streaming off of your computer? Are you downloading mp3 files and saving them? How--Tell me. How do you do it?

S: I just go to YouTube.

T: You go to YouTube. All right. Very interesting...

(Episode 1)

DV1 = 7.

This is an authentic teacher question.

DV2 = 12

It is an authentic teacher question with an uptake indicated by the pronoun "it." Although there are three questions prior to it, only the last question picked up by the student is coded.

Table 5: Questioning Coding

The author has thus coded all the interaction-related questions in the researched episodes from the two courses and computed the dialogic density of each episode.

Entering the World of Symphonies (A)

Listening to Music (B)

Density /#Question

Density/#Question

Lecture 1

9

2

3.7

32

Lecture 2

11

2

4.6

13

Lecture 3

11

2

4

2

Lecture 4

8

2

0

9

Lecture 5

8

2

3.9

19

Lecture 6

9

2

5.8

12

Lecture 7

12

2

4.6

7

Lecture 8

8

2

6.3

16

Lecture 9

0

0

5

8

Lecture 10

8

2

7.1

14

Lecture 11

8

3

4

10

Lecture 12

8

1

6.2

12

Lecture 13

8

2

3

22

Average Density

8.3

24

4.5

176

Table 6: Dialogic Density

Summary

#Observation

Total

Average

Variance

Group A

13

108

8.3

8.23

P-value = 0.000432

Group B

13

58.2

4.5

3.23

Table 7: Analysis of Variance

According to Table 6 and Table 7, it is safe to conclude that the Chinese course enjoys a higher dialogic density than the American one and that the teacher-student interactions in the former is more inclined to exploring student ideas with fewer test questions. Nevertheless, Entering the World of Symphonies has a much smaller number of questions so there are fewer opportunities for students to interact with the teacher.

However, interactions initiated by test questions are also useful to classroom teaching. For one thing, they are used by the teacher to test whether students have gained a correct understanding of some basic points in lectures. For another, they help maintain students’ interest in the teacher’s monologic discourse in which the majority of knowledge will be imparted. Moreover, students get more opportunities to be actively involved into the classroom learning. Therefore, it may be reasonably concluded that despite its lower dialogic density, Listening to Music has created a more active atmosphere of learning.

4.5 Power and Status in Classroom Interaction

"What is power? It is choice. It is the ability to choose, the freedom to choose, the condition to choose and the range of choices to choose from" (Liao, 2005b: 8). Based on the interactional data in the two courses, the teacher plays the role of initiator and students play the role of a passive cooperator. First of all, this can be demonstrated from the strategies they employ in classroom interaction.

Linguistic Strategies

Teacher

Initiation: direct questioning, requestive

Response: response to student questioning

Feedback: feedback to student answers

Student

Initiation: N/A

Response: response to teacher questions or requestives

Feedback: N/A

Table 8: Linguistic Strategies in Teacher-student Interaction

Moreover, there is not any student who raises a question without a teacher requestive. All this goes to prove that the teacher, organizer in the classroom, has the power to control while students remain cooperative and listen to the teacher.

4.6 Analysis of Goal Realization

According to Liao (2005b), goal analysis should by no means ignore the importance of analyzing the goal realization although it focuses on studying the goal system and goal strategies. This is because goal realization is an important criterion to judge whether the communication is successful or not and also a crucial parameter to assess the power and strategies of the parties involved.

Based on the analysis in the above sections, it is evident that the linguistic strategies employed by the teachers and students in the two courses serve to fulfill their goals in classroom interaction. On the one hand, since the role of the teacher is the classroom teaching organizer, he or she organizes the interactions according to the goals in the related lecture. For one thing, the teacher is the interaction initiator so as to ensure the right track of interactional processes. For another, when either giving response to student questioning or offering feedback to student responses, the teacher will always find a way to shift the focus back to the topic concerned in the lecture. On the other hand, as students attend lectures to acquire knowledge, they try their best to learn by participating in teacher-student interactions. First, by responding to teacher questions, their understanding of certain concepts is being tested and then confirmed or corrected by the teacher. Second, they make the use of student questioning to require more information about a certain topic, ask for the teacher’s opinion, or voicing their own views. Therefore, both the teacher and students can succeed in realizing their goals of teaching or learning via classroom interaction.

Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings

In this study, two online open courses of music appreciation, Entering the World of Symphonies and Listening to Music, have been chosen for comparative analysis from a goal-directed perspective. The author transcribed the teacher-student interactions in the Chinese course. The transcription of the American course has been made thanks to the English-Chinese subtitle by courtesy of YYeTs, a non-profit subtitle group. All the classroom interactions have gone through the analysis under the Goal Analysis Model. The comparative results of the two courses are summarized in the following table.

Entering the World of Symphonies

Listening to Music

Goal Relation

Convergent goal relation: teaching and learning

Goal System

Interactions serve to fulfill the goals in the lectures and hence, the general goal of the courses.

Top-down goal organization patterns are found in interactions initiated by test questions.

Bottom-up organization patterns maintain students’ interest and focus by leading the students step by step to the goal in the recitation that followed it.

The goal system of each lecture is less complex.

The goal system of each lecture is more complex.

Diversity of Interactional Patterns

IR, IRF(C-S)

IR, IRF(C-S), IRF(C-Q)RF, IRF(C), IRF(S)

Discourse Cohesion

Teacher-student interactions reflect or serve the goals in the lectures. Thus, the interactional discourse is cohesive.

Goal Strategy

Teachers use direct questions and requestives to initiate interaction.

By responding to student questions and giving feedback to student answers, they can always shift back to the goals concerned in the lecture.

Students are viewed as passive cooperators because they only respond by either answering teacher questions or raising a question upon the teacher’s request.

#Question

Teacher: 1

Student: 23

Teacher:170

Student: 6

Dialogic Density

8.3 indicates a higher dialogic density.

4.5 indicates a lower dialogic density.

Goal & Power

Teachers and students are not equal in classroom interaction as indicated by the analysis of goal strategy.

Goal Realization

The linguistic strategies employed by the teachers and students serve to fulfill their goals in classroom interaction.

Table 9: A Summary of Similarities and Differences of the Two Courses

5.2 Theoretical and Practical Implications

The teacher-student interactions in the two courses have been analyzed within the Goal Analysis Model. As is shown in Table 9, the interactional data have been studied from the angle of goal relation, goal system, goal and discourse cohesion, goal and linguistic strategy, goal and power, and goal realization. The results of this comparative study show that the Principle of Goal Direction can be applied to discourse of classroom interaction.

As the two online open courses are oriented towards music appreciation for non-music majors, the comparative results in the study serve to provide some useful implications for classroom interaction in music appreciation classrooms. First of all, music teachers can make the best of classroom interaction to organize his or her teaching according to the general goal of music appreciation. The teacher-student interactions help involve students in dialogues with the teacher so that he or she can not only test students’ understanding and maintain their interest but also explore their ideas via such dialogic discourse. Second, the comparative results presented in the study help music teachers learn about classroom interaction and decide what linguistic strategies to adopt to attain the goal of music appreciation. Last, by reviewing the students’ linguistic strategies in the research, music teachers can set out to create more opportunities for students to express their ideas and get actively involved in music appreciation lectures. What is more, the findings of this study may prove enlightening to teachers of other subjects too.

5.3 Limitations

This comparative study is only a tentative attempt to study classroom interaction in Chinese and American courses using the Principle of Goal Direction. It has three main limitations. First, this descriptive study cannot avoid subjectivity. Contextual clues are relied upon to help interpret goals in lectures and question coding concerning evaluative and cognitive levels. Second, online course videos cannot replace an on-site observative experience in the classroom. On-site classroom observation is assumed to help gain a more precise understanding of the goals as it will be possible for the researcher to conduct interviews with the teacher and students. Moreover, there will be less loss of discourse that fails to be captured by the sound recording equipment. Last, the applicability to music appreciation teaching may be somewhat limited. On the one hand, different music teachers have their own different teaching styles. Besides, different universities have different curricular goals. On the other hand, non-music majors have different expectations about such courses. Therefore, the numbers and types of questions used to initiate interactions will be different and so will the interactional patterns.

Considering both the theoretical and practical significance of this comparative study, the future research can be carried out in many other disciplines such as history, literature, mathematics, medicine, biology, engineering, chemistry and physics.