4.1 Teaching Strategy
4.1.2 The Effects Achieved with Booster
4.1.2 The Effects Achieved with Booster
Quantified data may enable the analyst to make inference on a speaker’s or writer’s stance, but it fails to demonstrate meaning, function, and purpose of stance-taking which is usually embedded beyond lexical level. Corpus-based discourse analysis provides quantitative data and should also be supported with qualitative approaches. Among the top booster markers both in the main corpus and sub-corpus, DON’T and WANT overlapped the two corpora and were listed in the front respectively in the function word list and content word list. Based on one of the five key principles of stance proposed by Englebretson (2007) – stance is consequential, which refers that taking a stance leads to real consequences, we found out the effects achieved with boosters. Examining the two words within context, we found that while the same booster markers, DON’T and WANT, were used by both Mr.
Keating and the opposite site, Mr. Nolan and students’ parents who hold contradictory beliefs to Mr. Keating’s, the consequences they intended to achieve are different.
Text 4.1 first examined DON’T and emphasized on the grammatical pattern
DON’T + Verb (verb follows DON’T). This pattern is imperative with the function to
demand or suggest the listener to abandon the current state and original intention. In the interaction between Mr. Keating and students, we noticed that Mr. Keating negated his students primarily in order to encourage them to think and to explore in a wider space, which is exemplified as follows.Text 4.1
oes he remind you of? Quickly, Anderson, don't think about it. A madman. What ki about it. A madman. What kind of madman? Don't think! Answer! Use your
n life-love, beauty, truth, justice. And don't limit poetry to the word. Poetry ith them! More about the blanket. Go on! Don't stop! There is magic, Mr. Anderso ow, who else wants to read? Come on boys don't be shy, I hold in my hand a cryst
me on, fellow, Neil, you were brilliant! Don't make it any worse than it is, Sur on't stop! There is magic, Mr. Anderson. Don't you forget this. People, A danger
man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use... Good! Langua Don't be embarrassed, Uh-huh, Uh-huh, Ha this school sixty or seventy years ago. Don't be timid; go look at them. They'r know it's wrong or silly. When you read, don't consider only what the author thi l continue next time, boys, Good effort. Don't worry, Mr. Anderson, You'll get a ered aloud in class. See you Monday. And don't think I don't know this assignmen
Except for three of them which are simply to negate (e.g. Don’t think I don’t know …) or used as formulaic sequence (e.g. Don’t worry, …), the rest of the excerpts shows that Mr. Keating used booster either to push students to create and evoke their potentials or to introduce novel ideas to them. The commonality is that students are encouraged to have their own voices. The possibility of students’ consequential actions is variable.
For students’ parents in this novel, the situation is apparently opposite. The school and parents hoped them to follow the tradition and creeds. Creativity was absolutely not allowed. The same pattern, therefore, functioned differently in their utterances. There is only one example of the pattern appear in Neil and his father’s communication as follows. "Don't you dare talk back to me!" he shouted (DPS, p.118). This utterance was produced when Neil’s father asked Neil to quit acting but Neil tried to argue. Here, it indicates that spaces for any other opinions and voices are closed up.
The comparison of the use of the pattern, DON’T + Verb, represents their contradictory stances on students’ development. Another example can be seen in the discursive environment of I DON’T CARE. As Mr. Keating expressed his definition of poetry including the nature of poetry and the possible themes after a student read
aloud the poem written by himself, he concluded that “I don't care, as long as it
enlightens us, thrills us and-if it's inspired-makes us feel a bit immortal” (DPS, p.73).
The message here is that he cared nothing since the topics of poetry is limitless and poetry can be seen everywhere. Again, Mr. Keating bore an open attitude to students’
ideas and creation. On the contrary, as Neil’s father came to ask Neil to quit acting, the way he used I DON’T CARE completely refused other alternatives for Neil to choose, which is shown as follows: I don't care if the world is coming to an end
tomorrow night; you are through with that play! Is that clear? IS THAT CLEAR?
(DPS, p.118) The pattern here showed Neil’s father’s firm opposition and indicated that the only option open to Neil is to quit.
The similar finding can also be found in the first overlapped content word as booster marker, WANT, in the main corpus and sub-corpus. The pattern I WANT
someone TO V was selected for analysis since it carried the function of making
commands, which is similar to imperative mood. The following two excerpts are from Mr. Keating’s utterances to students (see Text 4.2):Text 4.2
On the count of four, I want you to begin walking together around the courtyard.
Nothing to think about
I want each of you to write a poem-something of your own-to be delivered aloud
in class. (DPS, pp.85 & 61)
The former one was produced by Mr. Keating to instruct four students to march around the courtyard. The underlying purpose is to have them experience the tendency of conformity and the loss of individual differences, that is, the blind obedience. As for the latter one, Mr. Keating had an assignment for students. In the two examples, students were asked to perform something and to create something personally. In other words, students are at the center to make any decision. Oppositely,
Mr. Nolan, who was conservative and preferred to restrict students, was reluctant to render students the opportunity. In the following example, the speech context is that Mr. Nolan was going to inform Todd what would happen to Mr. Keating after he signed the paper related to the blame for Mr. Keating’s behaviors. The excerpt is provided in Text 4.3:
Text 4.3
"It's all right, Mr. Anderson," Mr. Nolan said. "Sit down, please. I want him to
know." He turned to Todd.
At first glance, we may fail to predict the consequences the stance-taking would lead to through the immediate context. However, as we read the further progress, we would find that Mr. Nolan’s intention is to have Todd know that regardless of his decision, nothing can change the results. That is, Todd was helpless to make any change on this issue.
The analysis of the two booster markers has something in common. Mr.
Keating employed booster to push his students to wider range of possibility, whereas the traditional side involving Mr. Nolan and the parents used booster to force students accept the one and only option and to be obedient. Through the analysis, it elucidated the opposite stances Mr. Keating and the traditional side took.