This thesis approaches classroom interaction in association with Bakhtin and conversation analysis (CA). The four studies presented in this thesis seek to highlight different aspects of classroom interactional encounters between the students and teachers of a secondary school class. Through these studies, the thesis addresses the following challenges: How can analysts account for ‘multilingual’ communicative practices in a way which respects the views and orientations of the participants? How may dialogism be relevant for classroom interaction? How can we move beyond the representational (in)sufficiency of an oral language focus on (classroom) communication for analysis of human meaning making practices? The studies arise from ethnographic fieldwork at an independent secondary school with a ‘bilingual’ educational profile where data of everyday instructional life was generated through participant observation and video recordings. Methodologically, the studies have been enabled by Bakhtinian concepts and conversation analytic conventions amplified for analysis of the complex range of modalities composing classroom interaction. Study 1 examines the way participants’ use of two (or more) languages in a ‘foreign’ language classroom throw light on each other in processes of lexical orientation which challenge the privileging or the subordination of any one language in language learning. Study 2 demonstrates the consequences for understanding the participants’ sense-making efforts of making representationally (in)visible integral aspects of their multimodal cooperations. Study 3 focuses on whole-class task instructions as interactionally complex by showing some of the mutual orientations through which teacher and students coordinate each other’s stances and consequently craft instructions collaboratively. Study 4 examines the concept of languaging critically in the light of Bakhtin’s penetrating perception of the utterance and underscores that while we may be able to language when communicating, we are also languaged communicators. / <p>The research is a part of Swedish Research Council project LISA-21</p>

This dissertation examines the role of the spatial in four works of digital interactive literature. These works are Dreamaphage by Jason Nelson (2003), Last Meal Requested by Sachiko Hayashi (2003), Façade by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern (2005) and Egypt: The Book of Going Forth by Day by M. D. Coverley (2006). The study employs an original analytical method based on close reading and spatial analysis, which combines narrative, design and interaction theories. The resulting critique argues that the spatial components of the digital works define reader interaction and the narratives that result from it. This is one of very few in-depth studies grounded in the close reading of the spatial in digital interactive literature. Over five chapters, the dissertation analyzes the four digital works according to three common areas. Firstly, the prefaces, design and addressivity are present in each. Secondly, each of the works relies on the spatial for both interaction and the meanings that result. Thirdly, the anticipation of responses from a reader is evaluated within the interactive properties of each work. This anticipation is coordinated across the written text, moving and still images, representations of places, characters, audio and navigable spaces. The similar divisions of form, the role of the spatial and the anticipation of responses provide the basic structure for analysis. As a result, the analytical chapters open with an investigation of the prefaces, move on to the design and conclude with how the spaces of the digital works can be addressive or anticipate responses. In each chapter representations of space and representational space are described in relation to the influence they have upon the potentials for reader interaction as spatial practice. This interaction includes interpretation, as well as those elements associated with the ergodic, or the effort that defines the reception of the digital interactive texts. The opening chapter sets out the relevant theory related to space, interaction and narrative in digital literature. Chapter two presents the methodology for close reading the spatial components of the digital texts in relation to their role in interaction and narrative development. Chapter three assesses the prefaces as paratextual thresholds to the digital works and how they set up the spaces for reader engagement. The next chapter takes up the design of the digital works and its part in the formation of space and how this controls interaction. The fifth chapter looks at the addressivity of the spatial and how it contributes to the possibilities for interaction and narrative. The dissertation argues for the dominance of the spatial as a factor within the formation of narrative through interaction in digital literature, with implications across contemporary storytelling and narrative theory.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om det dialogskapande som kan ske under planerade högläsningssituationer i både fysisk bok men även i e-bok.För att få skapa en större kunskap om dialoger under planerade högläsningssituationer samt hur barn skapar sitt egna aktiva deltagande via dialog används följande frågeställningar: Hur visar sig dialogen mellan pedagog och barn vid planerad högläsning via en fysisk bok och via e-bok? Hur skapar pedagogerna ett aktivt deltagande genom dialog hos barnen i planerad högläsning? För att få svar på forskningsfrågorna har empiri samlats in via ljudinspelningar av planerade högläsningssituaioner fyra med e-bok och fem med fysisk bok. De nio olika tillfällena leds alla av nio olika pedagoger. Studiens resultat har analyserats med hjälp av Bakhtins teori om dialogism och de grundpelare som den bygger på. Resultatet visar olika sorters dialoger mellan de som deltar i högläsningstillfällena och även hur barn skapar sitt egna aktiva deltagande. / The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about the dialogue creation that can take place during planned reading aloud situations in both the physical book but also in the e-book. To create a greater knowledge of dialogues during planned reading aloud situations and how children create their own active participation through dialogue The following questions are used: How does the dialogue between educator and child turn out in planned reading aloud via a physical book and via e-book? How do the educators create an active participation through dialogue with the children in planned reading aloud? To get answers to the research questions, empirical data has been collected via audio recordings of planned reading aloud situations, four with e-book and five with physical book. The nine different occasions are all led by nine different educators. The results of the study have been analyzed with the help of Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and the pillars on which it is based. The results show different kinds of dialogues between those who participate in the reading aloud sessions and also how children create their own active participation.