Immediacy and distance in teacher talk—A comparative case study in German elementary- and outdoor school-teaching

摘要

This case study examines authentic speech acts by a German primary school teacher in the classroom context and the outdoor learning location of a forest. The study will compare the degree of linguistic immediacy or distance in these two contexts, respectively. Once a week, the class is doing “outdoor school” [Drau?enschule ] in places of natural or cultural interest near to their school. The structural change in the teaching environment means a change in the communication setting. The question arises if the teacher speaks to the students differently indoors than outdoors. The theoretical reference framework for the study is provided by the linguistic model “language of immediacy and language of distance”. Using a conversation analytical approach, the study will document the organisation and form of speech acts with a focus on the teacher. This study occupies a point of intersection between linguistics and teaching research. The results show how the teacher’s speech changes. There are different reasons for this: Depending on where the class is being held, the teacher has to work with different possibilities and challenges to maintain the concentration of the class, and to organise and structure the lesson. The less functionalised and prestructured forest presents the teacher with more organisational challenges, something which in turn has an effect on the teacher’s speech acts. At the same time, the more open spaces outside the school often allow for a greater degree of direct contact between the teacher and the students which results in greater linguistic immediacy.