Student-initiated storytelling in classroom interaction

ABSTRACT This study examined interactional sequences in which students initiated storytelling in classroom interactions. The data consisted of 13 stories initiated by students in intermediate and advanced Persian language classes at two North American Universities. The study drew on conversation analysis in combination with membership categorization analysis to detail the sequential structure and category work in the students’ stories. A key finding was that students exhibited their knowledge affordances through storytelling. Specifically, the study explored how students’ identity work via self-initiated stories enabled them to make relevant their knowledge of and experience with certain cultural matters. Storytelling became an interactional site for students to show their sociocultural knowledge about the target community, and students’ initiation of stories invoked symmetry in classroom discourse and promoted agency. The current study contributes to research on storytelling in classroom interaction and to the growing body of research on epistemics in classroom discourse.