176 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
from Inner to Outer; Virginia talking about husbands washing up, and
Socoop talking about his children. This is very typical; students escaping
from teacher-imposed control, and teacher trying to bring the focus back
to language form.
Interestingly, there are no examples at all in any of my data of a teacher
switching straight from a series of DVXs (Inner) to an Elicit exchange (Outer)
with no intervening exchange. There is always at least a Boundary, or an
Inform, or a Direct in between; and significantly these are all exchange types
which require no verbal Responding move from the students. We can only
surmise that this is to prepare students for the switch from the requirement
of an Inner response to an Outer response. By contrast the students tend to
switch from Inner to Outer with no warning at all, and at the slightest excuse.
A summary of the normal patterns for focus switches is given below.
Teacher-initiated switches
OUTER TO INNER
Common
Correction of error.
Supplying new words.
Beginnings of drill or practice sequences: normally marked by Boundary
exchanges.
INNER TO OUTER
Rare
Usually at end of transaction.
If elsewhere, always marked in some way; normally as a result of student’s
misunderstanding, e.g. of instructions.
Student-initiated switches
OUTER TO INNER
Rare
Queries about the pronunciation or meanings of words or structures.
Requests for confirmation, though normally the latter only occur if already
on the Inner level.
INNER TO OUTER
Common
Either deliberately escaping from formal constraints imposed by teacher, or
non-recognition of them through misunderstanding. Requests for explanation
or further information.
There are of course many switches from Inner Independent to Inner Dependent.
Where the reverse occurred, and this was rare, there tended to be confusion.
As we have seen, some confusion and humour can be generated by students
switching from Inner Independent to Outer.