Pedagogical Implications of Stancetaking and Identity Construction in Lecturer-Student Interaction

Abstract

During a consultation at the postgraduate level, interactions between lecturer and student are essential in completing a thesis or dissertation. In most interactions, both speakers tend to construct their identities with their stance. Consequently, this paper examines how the postgraduate lecturers and students take a stance and construct their identities in lecturer-student interaction. Moreover, it explores the pedagogical implications of conversational stance and identity construction. This study combined the Stance Triangle and Stance Marker as a theoretical framework to analyze the construction of identity between lecturers and students and employed conversation analysis as an approach in the data analysis. Ten conversations between lecturer and postgraduate students during consultations were examined. The findings of the study reveal that attitudinal, deontic, epistemic, and textual stance markers are frequently used and linked to how they construct their identities. Results further show that lecturers position themselves as mentors, experts, counselors, and leaders, while the students position themselves as mentees, non-experts, counselees, and followers. Such diverse identities may impact the lecturer-student relationship and students’ academic performance. In addition, it provides opportunities for lecturers to enhance their supervisory skills and strategies and develop better classroom interaction.