Running head: THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION
The Power of Participation: A Learning Experience for Everyone
Candace Lake, Elise Fang, Rosie Cai, and Meghan Cavanaugh
The Pennsylvania State University
APLNG 572- Communication in Second Language Classrooms
April 9, 2013
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Running head: THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION
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Introduction
As teachers go through the educational and training process of their profession, common
core topics such as classroom management, course content, teaching strategies, educational
principles, and assessment are usually covered at some point before starting a job. However,
how many times do a course or professional development meeting make you aware of how you
speak in class? The majority of educators would probably never think to categorize their own
classroom language into “types of talk” (Mercer, 2000). What seems to lack attention in most
cases is how “talk” is utilized in the classroom. This action is taken for granted and used every
day. We use classroom language to communicate directions, expectations, to hold classroom
discussion, to ask and answer questions, and for a multitude of other functions. However, we
never seem to address how we talk, or the effect that it may or may not have in our classroom
interactions. Therefore, we have compiled data for a case study of this topic to find out how
classroom language is used, and the future implications that the sensitivity and awareness of
language use can create. The following will outline a case study where we analyze “types of
talk” within an instructional progression in order to answer our research questions.
Case Study Background
The data for this case study comes from a classroom in a university Intensive Language
Program (ILP) where the focus is on writing. The students were assessed prior to enrollment and
placed in this course because they were found to be at a low-intermediate level. The twelve
students in this class vary in age from straight out of high school to early thirties. Some of these
students have received higher education in their home countries before coming to the United
States, some have lived and/or partially studied in the United States before, and others were
completely new to both the United States and higher education. The language backgrounds in
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this class are comprised of 11 Arabic speakers from three separate Middle Eastern countries, and
one South Korean who speaks an urban dialect of Korean. It is also important, because of the
nature of the majority culture, to point out that 7 of these students are male, and 5 female (in an
Islamic culture men and women do not attend classes together). All of the students in this course
are working toward the goal of passing the TOEFL exam so they can attend the university. In
this course, the focus is to prepare them for academic writing structure, and to write clear,
grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs.
Analysis Approach
A two-hour class, chosen at random, was video recorded for the purpose of collecting data
for analysis and transcription. The video was then shaved down to two separate, approximately
8-10 minute long clips. These clips were agreed on by the group, and chosen because of the
interactions and language being used. The initial analysis of the clips led us to begin to think
about language in the classroom, and how it has an effect on student participation. From this
initial interest, the group put together the following research questions to answer.
1. How does the teacher use scaffolding questions to elicit student participation?
2. How does the teacher use student-initiated contributions to bridge the gap
between conversational and academic language?
3. How does this function as a model for academic behavior?
Rather than try to apply a data analysis approach to the data, we took an opposite approach
where we allowed it to present a framework of its own through the analysis of the classroom talk.
As we have encountered in class, the difficulty and frustration that can occur when authentic data
from a classroom does not fall perfectly into a theory or method of some sort makes us, at times,
need to adopt new interpretations. Therefore, we concluded that there is a progression that
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occurs in this data, which helps us to find specific examples that explain and model the answers
to our research questions. First, we will explain what is happening in particular places of the
data, and then show how this fits into our progression.
Both data sets come from the same lesson. The students had just had a mini-lesson at the
beginning of class about the structure of a paragraph (a topic sentence that includes a topic and a
controlling idea, supporting details which are examples or descriptions of the topic, and a
concluding sentence that restates the topic or summarizes the points). The review activity that
the teacher created had students identifying topic sentences. The students were split into three
groups. Each group had to read a paragraph at the assigned station, and then choose the best
topic sentence from their worksheet (each paragraph had three sentences to choose from). They
needed to come to a decision as a group, and then write their answer on a sheet of paper before
moving on to the next station to perform the same task. For our data selections, the students and
teacher are going over the answers and discussing why the answers are correct or incorrect.
Data Set 1
Through discussion with the instructor, the group was informed of a particular trend that
this instructor has noticed in the past year and a half working with her Arabic-speaking students.
Many times when these students are holding conversations in English and come across a word or
idea that they do not know how to express, they tend to use a gesture to try to get the English
speaking interlocutor to provide the word that they are looking for. As a parallel to this, in a
classroom setting, this same instructor has noticed that when questions that require an
explanation as a response are asked, these same students tend to give examples of the answer
rather than the explanation itself. It may be argued that these students do not know the
difference between an example and explanation, or that they have not been accustomed to these
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sorts of responses in their culture’s educational approach. For this case study, the group has
decided to take on an interpretation that the students, much like when they use gestures to have
someone else provide a word, provide examples because they lack the vocabulary for an
explanation.
Take a look at the following transcript (Sequence 1.1), which came from our data. This is a
clip of some open conversation between the teacher and students initiated by a question. Pay
attention to how this sequence supports the idea that examples are typically used instead of
explanations in student responses. Also, notice how the language changes for student 3 (S3)
before and after the teacher’s prompt in lines 99-102.
Sequence 1.1:
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T: Why would you pick that one?
Ss: Because...(??? Multiple students speak at once)
S6: Because all of the paragraph say that city...and what is that.
S3: Every state has different food...
T: Yeah, it names the city and tells the food, that’s …you know famous in that
areas, [Ss: Yeah.] so you guys were specifically looking at the details, right?
[Ss: Yeah.]
T: I’m trying to find out what’s the process that you went through to get to this
answer (???)
[S3: And also] the conclusion sentence tell us what’s the topic sentence.
T: (Nodding) Ok, so the topic sentence is related to the conclusion, right?
S1: Yes.
Ss: Yeah
Instead of directly giving the answer to the students, the teacher first asks students a related
question to direct them to the topic. The students provide informal responses to the teacher’s
question, which then prompts her to instructionally paraphrase in order to verify that intersubjectivity, or mutual understanding, is occurring between her and the students. In addition to
this instructional paraphrasing, the teacher makes it explicit as to what she is looking for. This
displays the use of scaffolding questions, or more specifically reducing the degrees of freedom
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(RDF) to ask students the process that they went through to figure out their answers. During this
time, the teacher models and/or introduces academic terminology from their utterances and
conversational language. What this allows is for the students to make anaphoric references to the
past lesson where they learned the terms that they now need to use in their explanations. This
creates opportunities for the students to give more in-depth and academic responses. Through the
teacher’s step-by-step guiding and scaffolding, the students realize that they were, in fact, able to
use the academic language that they had acquired to not only give the examples, but also explain
the process in a metacognitive manner. This outlines a progression that we see again in Data Set
2. This progression is as follows:
1. The teacher poses scaffolding questions in order to elicit student responses.
2. This promotes informal speech, or some sort of student contribution.
3. The teacher uses instructional paraphrasing to model academic speech based off
student contributions.
4. This process then creates an exchange where students can produce more in-depth,
academic responses.
In line 94, the teacher uses a referential question to start the progression. This scaffolding
question was used by the teacher to discover the initial levels of students’ understanding in order
to adjust the instruction accordingly, as well as encourage students to reason and reflect on what
they were doing. From lines 95-97, the students gave answers in the form of examples through
cumulative talk. In lines 98- 100, the teacher repeats the students’ informal responses by using
academic language to model appropriate answers. The teacher then explicitly points out what she
is looking for by asking questions again (line 101). The word process gave the students an
obvious signal for academic language, where they then realize that they were able to use the
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academic language taught in the beginning of the class to give the explanations the teacher was
looking for. In lines 103-104, the student is able to make the connection not only from the
scaffolding questions, but also through cumulative and exploratory talk used in this classroom.
Within the success of this progression lies the importance of classroom “talk.” The teacher
uses exploratory talk by accepting all of the students’ contributions in order for different points
of view, strategies, or thoughts to be shared with everyone, which then maintains the flow of
cumulative talk in class. The cumulative talk allows more exploration of looking deeper in order
to produce those metacognitive processes that the teacher was looking for. The strategy for
solving problems and making sense of the students’ experience and knowledge is the main focus.
The teacher uses the in-class interactions as opportunities for encouraging students to make
explicit their own processes to the rest of the class. In class, the teacher not only creates
communities of inquiry in the classroom, but also uses classroom activities to create more
opportunities for inter-subjectivity, the mutual understanding between the students and the
teacher (lines 110-111, 128-136). For instance, the teacher uses questions to open up a forum for
the students to exchange ideas and opinions, which can then be built on further since there is now
a base line for common knowledge.
Data Set 2
Data Set 2 also shows signs of this same progression that we saw in the first set. In the first
set, the students were still learning what sorts of answers were expected by the teacher, and were
practicing how to use their thoughts and the academic language, both separately and together, to
get to the final discussion point and answer. Referring back to the task set up, the first data set
came from discussion held at the first station. For this second data set, we are now focusing on
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the third station. The students have had time to practice and internalize the structure of asking
questions and sharing/discussing the answers. It is through this practice that some of the students
now understand this process, while others are still working on mastering giving their
explanations.
It is through this practice that the progression does not continue in the exact same order;
however, all the elements of it are still present. Take a look at Sequence 1.2 below:
Sequence 1.2:
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S4: Really complicated about that . We know because first we thought it was C
because we have three types first, second… because we sometimes have everyone
we have like a lot of things like the equipment that we would use it and repeated.
[T: Mm hmm] T:
T: Yeah, or what you would use it for.
S4: and repeated.
T: Yea definitely. So you guys were kinda (juggling gesture)… but then you
decided to go with A because you were looking at the actual [S4: Yes]
specifically what each sentence said. So those of you that chose C did they
convince you or do you still stand by C?
S1: No C
T: You’re C. Alright what’s your reasoning for it?
S1: For uh, as I told you three sentence second type, type right. [T: yes] Third
type so the writer try to tell us that there’s three types for the climbing.
T: Hmm climbing, the b is silent. [Ss: (???)] Yes, yes climbing
S9: (???)
The framework is adapted instead to include an informal response, instructional paraphrase,
scaffold question, and student explanation. In this selection, student four (S4) explains the
reason they chose their answer, but does not use academic language. It is also more of an
example than an explanation. The teacher then uses instructional paraphrasing in Line 177-180
to review what is being said. Then further in Line 182, she uses the phrase, “what’s your
reasoning?” She is trying to guide them back to what they discussed in the first example and
how they explained their process. Finally in Lines 183-184, student one (S1) is able to use the
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language they were implicitly taught during the first part to explain his group’s reasoning for
choosing answer A over C. Through repeating the progression, and always asking questions to
implicitly refer the students back to the material learned earlier in the class, the teacher is better
able to manage the discussion.
As mentioned before, we also took a look at disputational talk, negotiations, and
persuasions in this set. Throughout Data Set 2, there are many great examples of all three. This
discussion part of the class leads to one student insisting that he has the correct answer. The
discussion becomes dominated by this student and leads to this particular kind of talk. From
lines 182-216 he gives the explanation of his answer as well as examples to try to convince his
classmates and the teacher that his choice is the correct answer. Even after another student has
offered her suggestions to the answer, and the teacher explains it to him, he still decides to stand
by his answer. It is because there is a power play between the teacher and the student, and the
fact that neither party ever reaches the same conclusion that we would say this is disputational
talk. We feel it is important to mention that as Mercer (2000) says, although this is this power
play and dispute, it does not need to be confrontational or heavy with negative emotions in order
to still fit into this category. Instead, it is just the end result of not coming to a consensus.
We can see from the transcript conversation that S1 is a lawyer in his home country, so he is
in his element right now. He uses language and examples to try to convince his classmates of the
correct answer, and hopes that his persuasion skills work. In addition to this, in line 228, a
student admits to trying to convince his group of another answer. This student, as the teacher
points out, collapses from peer pressure and ends up going along with the answer from the rest of
his group members. This brings out an interesting account of specifically speaking about
negotiation and persuasion. Although S1 dominated the conversation in this section, we are still
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able to see how the use of skills like negotiation and persuasion helped to create more in-depth
discussion for the whole class to listen to and watch unfold, creating a memory that will help
them to continue the same process in the future.
General Findings with Future Implications
In relating our data back to our research questions, we can conclude that the use of
scaffolding questions initiates student participation by providing an open forum for students to
freely express their ideas, whether their ideas lead to the correct answer or not. The students
learn through guidance and practice what the classroom expectations are that are set by the
instructor, and creates a shared learning environment through exploratory and cumulative talk.
Rather than asking questions that can be answered with simple or one word answers, she chooses
to ask more open ended questions for scaffolding that will make the students have to push
further, beyond the surface, to find the real answers and processes. Once this process occurs, the
real learning for students happens and ignites future exploration.
As you can see, the students slowly move from using examples and conversational language
to understanding how they can use the terms they have learned in class to provide an acceptable,
academic response to questions. The teacher, by taking in the utterances from the students and
paraphrasing them into an academic framework, helps to model for the students how they could,
and should, answer questions. Not only do the students feel that what they contribute is
important, but then they also receive this model that they can try to practice using, which we do
see in the transcript. Students slowly start using terms learned in class, examples straight from
the text, and information built off each other’s ideas to find that place where they can take the
information in their minds, and express it through their second language in a more formal,
academic manner. The students take the initiative to bridge that gap between conversational and
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academic language with a small nudge from the teacher. The guidance for this is completely
contingent on what the students are willing to provide.
The students, being exposed to classrooms similar to those that they will experience in the
university, are able to slowly, through experience, understand and expect what a university
educational experience will be like. Specific to this data, the students will be asked questions
similar to those that were asked in this activity, and will have to continually share their ideas,
express opinions, work with others, and take several steps before coming to any correct answers
or conclusions. Apart from the learning process of this task, the students are also learning
pragmatic skills to succeed in an American university setting.
Our group agrees that further implications found from this research could lead us to study
how programs such as the Intensive English Language schools help to teach those pragmatic
skills that will help students to assimilate into a new and sometimes vastly different culture. It
provides a safe environment to speak up, work with other people, or to work with people for the
first time. It provides a foundation for students to learn classroom behaviors that teachers
already expect of their students, but due to a lack in that specific cultural knowledge may not live
up to. The process of learning these skills for an academic environment before entering the
university could have a huge impact in the overall success of those students. In the classroom,
students are encouraged to have an opinion, debate controversial topics, and to negotiate with
team members or with reasoning. These are all essential skills that help students succeed. It
would be interesting to further this research by looking into a case study where students from
language programs are followed throughout college and their experiences are compared to those
that started university without any preparatory courses.
Running head: THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION
Reference
Mercer, N. (2000). Words & minds: How we use language to think together. London:
Routledge.
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Appendix A: Data Transcript
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T: Can we all kind of come over here and we’ll start with this one?
S1: yeah
T: hehe I figured we needed to move. It's a Monday. Hehe
So alright can I have you guys actually come, come join us (arm gesture to come
toward the teacher), we're gonna come to each station and look at them. (???) It’s
all right. It's all right. It's
[S1: ???]
so hard. Here we go. Alright, come on we can all squeeze in. I don't bite. I
promise. Hehe OK, so let's read this one. It says “For example, Kansas City, in
the very center of the United States is known for its beef, and Kansas City's
barbecue is everyone's favorite way to enjoy it. In Boston, people love baked
beans. In the Southwest, chili, a stew made of meat, beans, tomatoes, and hot
peppers, is the regional dish. Wisconsin, a state with many diary farms, is famous
for its cheese. Go to Maryland and Virginia for crab cakes and to the Northeast
for clam chowder and maple syrup. Indeed, many U.S. cities and regions have a
special food for everyone to enjoy.” Words in there that you don't know. When
you guys were reading it. Did you talk about that at all?
S2: What is that?
S3: No.
T:No?
S3: no.
S4: Just thinking (???)
T: You can come up if you can't see it. You can, (motion to come forward) ‘cause
there's lots of room. hehe
S1: Here. Chowder and maple (One student points at the paper)
T: and Maple syrup? Who knows what chowder is? Chowder. It's clam chowder.
S3: Like. (???) Clam chowder
T: You know what a clam is? In the ocean. The clam, kind of like an oyster, kind
of a clam.
S1: and maple maple
T: Well, we still didn't figure out what chowder was yet. Let’s do one at a time.
Anyone know what’s clam chowder. Yeah, it’s inside the shell, the shell is on the
outside (making a clam shape with her hands).
Ss: (???)
S4: her name it means in Arabic inside the clam.
T: Oh really? hehe
S1: uh hu:::h
S4: Really this is. (???) Danah.
T: That’s interesting.
S1: Danah.
S4: Danah…Danah (???? Inaudible Arabic)
T: It means inside?
S5: (??? Inaudible Arabic)
S1: (??? Asking questions in Arabic to S5)
Running head: THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION
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Ss: (??? Students erupt into conversation back and forth in Arabic)
T: Hehe I don't know what's going on anymore. Hehe Ok, so, it means what's
inside the clam. That’s interesting, but we still didn't figure out what chowder
was. What's chowder? (fanning motion because of the heat in the room)
S1: Ok
S6: What’s chowder?
T: Yea.
S7: (???)
T: It's hot. It IS hot.
S8: yeah
Ss: hehe
T: It’s a hot food. (still fanning herself) hehe And It's hot in here. hehe
S4: Chowder is hot food?
T: It is, it’s hot, not spicy hot. Temperature hot (motions on her hand as a
feeling).
S4: Oh
T: Yeah. It's kind of like a soup. It's a really thick soup. Is a chowder. Yeah, and
then the clams is just the meat that flavors the the soup
[S4: it’s like traditional American food.]
T: up up north yes. And you were by the sea. Like um, because the clams are in
the ocean, you'll have really good clam chowder. Yeah mmhmm. A:::nd maple
syrup, it's another one. What's maple syrup
S3: Syrup…like, like we put in the pancake.
T: yea::::h. You put maple syrup on your pancakes,
S5: Oh (??? Words in Arabic)
T: o:::r, on your french toast. I put it on my french toast.
S1: Um. Like, explain it. (???)
T: It's It's like a::::
S3: (?????)
T: It's kind of it's it’s thick, but it's like a sugary substance that we get out of
trees. And we it pour over stuff.
S1: O::h yes.
S4: (??? Translating in Arabic)
Ss: (???? Inaudible chatter)
T: So have you guys had? Obviously you had cereal.
Ss: yes
T: Ok, so we all know what that is. Any other words......that we didn’t
understand? Chili?
S4: Chili?
T: Chili? Does everybody? Chili’s spicy, yea yea. It’s good though. Hehe
Alright, anything else?
S8: (???)
T: What’s that?
S8:The answer C
T: The answer? Ok, everybody says that C was the answer, so this was number 2.
Ss: Yeah.
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T: So “Different regions in the United States have their own traditional foods.”
Everybody agrees?
Ss: Yeah.
T: Why would you pick that one?
Ss: Because......(??? Multiple students speak at once)
S6: Because all of the paragraph say that city...and what is that.
S3: Every state has different food...
T: Yeah, it names the city and tells the food, that’s …you know famous in that
area, [Ss: Yeah.] so you guys were specifically looking at the details, right?
[Ss: Yeah.]
T: I’m trying to find out what’s the process that you went through to get to this
answer (???)
[S3: And also] the conclusion sentence tell us what’s the topic sentence.
T: (Nodding) Ok, so the topic sentence is related to the conclusion, right?
S1: Yes.
Ss: Yeah.
T: So you guys were looking at the concluding sentences. Good. Good. So let’s
look at all these just really quick. “There is a variety of food in the United States”.
Why wouldn’t that be a good topic sentence for this...(pointing) ?
S6: Because this is specific. Specific a lot. [S1: It’s very general. Um]
T: I’ve got specific and I’ve got general. Hehe Which one is it? What do you
guys think? (Looking to other students)
S4: (????)
S1: It’s very general...yea general (nodding)
T: You think it’s a general topic? A variety of food but it’s...(Shrug the shoulder)
S4: It contains everything (???)
T: It still...yeah...it still contains everything. But why wouldn’t it be a good
topic sentence, then?
S4: It must mention everything. Topic sentence (???) ...different (???)
T: Ok, so for the ones you said you talked it says “Different regions of the United
States have their own traditional foods.” So that’s not too specific then?
S6: What is the meaning of word...the variety?
T: Variety is a lot of kinds. A lot of different kinds. Varieties.
S3:Yea but the answer C it’s like...the good topic for the paragraph is like... The
specific paragraph
T: It has what? It has the topic and...?
S3: It has the topic and...
T: What was in the very beginning of the class, we talked about topic sentences
have a topic and? (making a gesture with 2 fingers to represent there’s two
elements to a topic sentence)
[S4: supporting?]
[S3: Details...]
[T: almost...]
S1: controlling...ideas?
T: Controlling ideas. So it supports the topic, yes, but it’s controlling. So C has a
controlling idea. We know specifically it’s gonna talk about ...the different
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regions.
Ss: uh huh.
T: But it’s not too specific. Alright. So we don’t want anything too general
(hands far apart gesture), and we don’t want anything too specific, either. Alright?
Yes. (with a thumbs up)
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T: This one we had different answers.
S8: Yea
T: Oo, this is exciting.
[S1: Yea]
T: I can’t wait. Ok, so. Let’s look.
S1: We, we underline this, I Imean our team my team [T: mmhmm] underline
this (he points to specific words in the paragraph). Second thing third tape so the
uh paragraph talk about uh about kinds of tapes
T: mmhmm What’s the first type?
S1: We didn’t find it so we conclude that uh, uh the uh writer eh just want us to
know that there’s tapes in the in the topic this topic
T: types (whispers)
S1: tape..types?
T: types,
[S4: type]
T: types, yes. The tape is like (gesture of taping paper to a board)
S1: oh give uh just money like the airport tape yeah tape
[S4: (???)]
T: That one’s a tip if you give somebody money like a waitress, that’s a tip.
S1: Tip
T: Yea The vowel is different. So that you give money ti:::p. This (points to
tape) ta::::pe. But this word is type. Yes three different vowels. Hehe Ok so
actually trail climbing would be your first type. [S1: uh huh] You just didn’t put
first so good way to look back and see, oh what kind, we had rock climbing, ice
ice climbing, oh trail climbing that would be number one. Ok so let’s look at the
answers here. We had two groups said A “Mountain climbing requires special
skills and equipment.” And then one group said C “There are three main types of
mountain climbing.”
S4: Really complicated about that . We know because first we thought it was C
because we have three types first, second… because we sometimes have everyone
we have like a lot of things like the equipment that we would use it and repeated.
[T: Mm hmm] T:
T: Yeah, or what you would use it for.
S4: and repeated.
T: Yea definitely. So you guys were kinda (juggling gesture)… but then you
decided to go with A because you were looking at the actual [S4: Yes]
specifically what each sentence said. So those of you that chose C did they
convince you or do you still stand by C?
S1: No C
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17
T: You’re C. Alright what’s your reasoning for it?
S1: For uh, as I told you three sentence second type, type right. [T: yes] Third
type so the writer try to tell us that there’s three types for the climbing.
T: Hmm climbing, the b is silent. [Ss: (???)] Yes, yes climbing
S9: (???)
T: You think that theres no topic mhmm. So your pointing to A.
S9: (???) I think C.
T: you think C because there’s too many different types being talked about.
S1: every sentence the writer begin with ,…
T: And Ibrahim was the other one in the group. What do you think.
S8: maybe A
Ss: hehe
S1: What are you doing? Oh no. It’s your name, it’s your name.
[T: so]
S1: you can’t change that.
T: hehe so so two out of the three still think yes it it should be A lets think
back, …or C I’m sorry I messed that up. Two out of the three think it should still
be C. Go back to what you guys told me with this first one about being too
general or too specific. (hand gesture to match general-hands apart, and specifichands together)
[S1: general or too specific]
T: So if we think that way is just saying there are three main types of mountain
climbing too general or too specific?
S2: Too specific.
S1: The middle it’s in the middle. It’s not gener… Neither general or specific
S4: He’s a lawyer.
T: hehe I know! That explains it all. I think if you’re compare it to A [S1: uh
huh] It’s too general to just say there are three types of of mountain climbing
because… they had a really good point is if you read about this it tells you the
kinds of equipment [S1: mmhmm] so you kind of want to make mention of that in
your topic
S4: Why they mention it.
T: You’re still not convinced.
S1: yeah
T: We’ll have to just agree to disagree on this one. But how about the other two?
Do you guys do you stick by C or do you say, eeh I can see it, I think A would be
better. What do you guys think? We know Ghdeer’s aswer. Hehe
S4: You have the last chance to answer.
S1: The last chance.
T: What do you guys think?
S1:To be or not to be.
S4: Maybe they (???) right or wrong. I confused after (???)
T: hehe This is fun though to discuss it [S1: yea] because this is how we figure
it out right when we talk about it and even when you guys were in groups. I’m
like, convince, that Haidar wasn’t sure I was like [S7: Yeah] your group how do
you convince him?
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18
S7: I told them that C
T: So he’s admitting ok he’s admitting he had C too.
S7: Then they tell me say A
T: But that’s But that’s peer pressure that’s not agreeing with them. Hehe You’re
agreeing with them because they said so and you’re out numbered.
S7: yea it’s C
T: Hehe But did you agree with them afterwards? When they said oh but they’re
talking about equipment.
S7: no
T: You still didn’t agree?
[S7: no]
T: Oh man who all was in that group? [S7: yea eh] Who’s Alameezi? [S7:
that’s me my name] That’s hehe that’s Haidar’s group. So that whole group, you
guys didn’t try to convince him to think differently? [S3: Yea,] You just said,
nope.
S3: We talked to him
T: hehe You did talk to him. Ok well good. That’s all
S1: So what’s your answer. What’s the correct answer?
T: I would say that it’s A yes because I just think saying three main types of
mountain climbing is just a little too general
S1: Is that your opinion, just your opinion? hehe
T: Oh Goodness you are such a lawyer! I would say, I’m going to stand by it and
say, yes it’s too general. hehe