First Position Noticings Ascribed as Directives: The Interplay of Action Ascription and Deontic Stance in L2 English-Medium University Classrooms

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Demirezen S. B., Turan P.

International Conference on Conversation Analysis, Edmonton, Kanada, 23 - 29 Haziran 2026, ss.141-142, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Edmonton
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Kanada
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.141-142
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The present study describes an interactional phenomenon wherein an utterance formulated explicitly as a noticing (i.e., a remark on something perceivable within the ongoing environment or activity) without any directive form functions interactionally and sequentially as a directive, evidenced by recipients orienting to and subsequently responding to the noticing as an instruction or call for remedial action, by looking at 20 hours of L2 English-medium university classes that involve active student involvement, such as design studios, laboratories and other similar learning environments. In many disciplines, such settings of clinical training involve a multitude of instructional demands to “get others do things” that are realized in fundamentally embodied practices in interaction (Stevanovic and Per.kyl., 2012). Consequently, instructors make the disciplinary know-how “instructably witnessable”, “teachably visible,” and “situatedly tutorial” in such settings with (Garfinkel, 2002, p.101, as cited in Nguyen, 2017) a “greater likelihood of directive formulations” (Craven and Potter 2010, p.439). In line with this, the present study provides a micro-analytical investigation into how instructors’ noticings are ascribed as directives by the students in activities that involve students presenting their works or here-and-now actions to instructors’ feedback. The analysis demonstrates how the participants draw on an interplay of both bottom-up (e.g., turn-design) and top-down (e.g., personal statuses and rights) resources ascribe these first position noticings as directives, as such considerations have the potential to “move the issue of action ascription forward” (Heritage, 2022, p.298). Such student-led, multiparty instructional environments offer crystallized examples of how participants negotiate their epistemic and deontic stances in real time, and contest or affirm role legitimacy through ordinary interaction. 


In the short extract below, Physical Education students are engaged in a diaphragmatic breathing activity, lying on the ground, each with their head resting on the abdomen of another student. The segment begins with the TA’s first position, stand-alone noticing, which mobilizes S5 to change her bodily practice.

Formally, the TA’s first position turn is non-imperative, lacking direct address or explicit evaluative markers. Yet, the student immediately nods and smiles in response, followed by a noticeable shift in breathing: both chest and abdomen movements temporarily stop, and diaphragmatic breathing alone resumes (Line 2). This sequence suggests that the noticing is ascribed a directive force through both its positioning and design, and the institutional roles and deontic stances of TA and the students. By responding preemptively and nonverbally, the student treats the noticing not merely as commentary but as a meaningful call for behavioral alignment. 


Across multiple instances analyzed, students responded to first-position noticings as directives through immediate bodily adjustments, verbal acknowledgments, or future-oriented commitments. Such responses indicate that the instructional relevance of the noticing is not merely inferred but acted upon, positioning the noticing as a resource for managing task performance. While prior research has shown that noticings may guide attention or serve as precursors to reflection (Rauniomaa et al., 2018; Waring, 2022), this study advances the literature by showing how first-position noticings may be routinely treated as action-ascriptive and deontically consequential, eliciting responses ranging from immediate adjustments to future-oriented commitments in instructional settings. It contributes to conversation analytic work on institutional interaction by foregrounding how deontic stance and participant roles shape the first positioned noticings ascribed as directives, thereby advancing our understanding of how pedagogical authority is exercised and negotiated in university classes.


References

Craven, A., & Potter, J. (2010). Directives: Entitlement and contingency in action. Discourse Studies,12(4), 419–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445610370126

Garfinkel, H. (2002). Ethnomethodology’s programs: Working out Durkheim’s aphorism. Rowman & Littlefield.

Heritage, J. (2022). The multiple accountabilities of action. In A. Deppermann & M. Haugh (Eds.), Action ascription in interaction (pp. 297–329). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108676460.013

Nguyen, H. T. (2017). Toward a conversation analytic framework for tracking interactional competence development from school to work. In S. Pekarek Doehler, E. Gonz.lez-Mart.nez, & J. Wagner

(Eds.), Interactional competences in institutional settings: From school to the workplace (pp.197–225). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57103-4_8

Rauniomaa, M., Lehtonen, E., & Summala, H. (2018). Noticings with instructional implications in postlicence driver training. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 326–346. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12199

Stevanovic, M., & Per.kyl., A. (2012). Deontic authority in interaction: The right to announce, propose, and decide. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(3), 297–321.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2012.699260

Waring, H. Z. (2022). Stand-alone noticing as a resource for constructing the reflectable: The work of cultivating professional vision. Second Language Teacher Education, 1(1), 25–45.