COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (REVISION, TEACHER COMMENTS)

Studies in classroom discourse analysis have provided many insights into the ways classrooms are structured by the talk between teacher and student. The language used by the teacher has also been shown to have characteristic linguistic features distinguishing it as a register. The composition classroom is unique in that two levels of discourse exist: an oral interchange and a written interchange. The features of the oral interchange have been well described, but no description has been constructed for the written exchange. Based on ethnographic data, this dissertation is a tentative description of the discourse structure of the interchange between a teacher and student that underlies written comments on student papers and the students' revision responses.

The interchange consists of three to five moves from the teacher's making the assignment to her final evaluation. In her commenting move, the teacher makes two kinds of speech acts--directives and verdictives. Each directive or verdictive can be specified according to five distinctive features: (+OR-)indicating, (+OR-)locating, (+OR-)naming, (+OR-)correcting, and (+OR-)rule-giving. The students' revising behaviors in the fourth move are either editing or revising and are examined as responses to the illocutionary force of the teacher's comments.

One significant finding is that the teacher's written comments often have an illocutionary force for the student that differs greatly from what the teacher intended, especially in exchanges between the teacher and the unskilled writer. Another finding is the students' response to the comments is shaped by the kinds of comments they receive. By exploring the assumptions that the participants bring to the task of writing and revising a composition, this dissertation demonstrates how the teacher comments differently on successful vs. unsuccessful students' papers and the resulting revision responses the students make. From the findings, the dissertation offers a tentative definition of the skills and knowledge a student must possess to demonstrate communicative competence in the composition classroom.