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5.4.1.1 Manifestations of Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance in her practice
The collected data indicates that Maya has control over the students’ learning. She is the one who decides what the students need to learn, she initiates and leads
activities in the class, and she tells the students what to do and when to do the tasks. The following excerpt taken from a recording of her lesson is one example of how Maya
controls the class activities:
MAYA: Now we are going to listen to what is it…. some people say about their friends whether they are same or different. Okay for part A, what you have to do is just to think whether they are
same or different. Okay. If you think they are different so have to think or put a check on the box saying different. Okay if you think they are same, you have to think or check or centang in
Indonesian on the box saying same. Okay, that’s for part A. For part B, you’ll listen again and you have to find or circle the words describing their friends; yup the characteristics of the
friends. Okay be ready please.
The above excerpt is an example how Maya controls the students’ learning. Maya said; “… what you have to do is just to think whether they are same or different and you’ll
listen again”; and “… you have to find or circle the words describing their friends; yup the characteristics of the friends. Okay be ready please”. These are her instructions to
the students pertaining to the class activities. Instead of using the word “can” or “might”, Maya used the words “have to” when she gave the instruction. This reflects
her control over the students’ learning. In addition, the students do not have the opportunity to ask questions or to choose the type of learning tasks or assignments or
which problems to work on. Hence, they are not involved in the decision making process as to what they need to learn.
Maya’s lesson is monologic rather than interactive in that she speaks much more than the students during the lessons. In one class meeting, Maya spoke for the majority
of the time during one lesson, telling the students what to do, explaining the topic, and discussing and guiding the activities. She does not require a high level of student
participation during lessons and the students do not have the opportunity to interact with each other during the teaching and learning process. She also does not provide the
students with an opportunity to ask questions, for example after she finishes explaining how to engage with the lesson materials. Students passively receive the
informationknowledge from her and only speak up if Maya ask them to do so.
115 Maya often asks the students to participate in the class activity by nominating
which students are to answer the questions, as demonstrated in the following excerpt
taken from a recording of one of her lessons:
[Before continuing her discussion to a new topic, Maya asks some warm up questions to the students]
MAYA: Okay now I will ask you some questions before we move on to listening 1. You said that you have good friends right? Are your friends different from you? I mean in the
characteristics. Let’s say your friends are … what is it … funny, and then easy going and then … what is it … like jokes and you maybe are quite serious so you and your friends are different.
Okay. What about you? [Looking to a student] BUDI: Different
MAYA: Different [repeating Budi’s answer]. Tell us what make you different. BUDI: My friend is so quiet person, but I’m talkative.
MAYA: Okay. What about you? looking to a student INDAH: My friend is funny and easy going, but I’m serious person.
MAYA: Okay. Your friend is funny and you’re a serious person. What about you? [Looking to a student]
INDAH: I’m serious, loyal, but my friend is not serious, funny, and easy going. MAYA: Okay. You’re serious and loyal and your friend is not serious.
As in the above excerpt, Maya limits the opportunities for the student to participate or answer voluntarily in the class by nominating students to answer her questions. Her
instruction; what about you? is an indication of her intention to control student participation in the class. In addition, in reference to classroom discourse, the above
excerpt shows Maya demonstrates the minimum interaction pattern by implementing the initiation-response-follow-up IRF pattern proposed by Sinclair and Brazil 1982.
Most of the time, Maya initiates a question, the students respond, and Maya then provides feedback on the response. An example taken from the above excerpt is:
Initiation: What about you? Response: My friend is funny and easy going, but I’m serious person.
Feedback: Okay. Your friend is funny and you’re a serious person
The example indicates that Maya dominates the interaction because the type of feedback she provides to the students is repetitive, and she does not provide the third turn to
116 facilitate further opportunities for interaction. This interaction pattern minimises the
students’ productive thought and further participation in classroom activities. Further example of how Maya nominates which students are to answer her
questions in class is presented in the excerpt below:
MAYA: Okay, now for part two. You will listen to the professor’s questions and you have to write down the questions [playing the cassette in which the professor asks about full name and
hobby]. MAYA: [Students are writing down the questions based on the cassette] Finished?
STUDENTS: Finished [students answer all together]. MAYA: Now answer the questions [Maya points to Risa].
Yup, just say your full name. RISA: [Murmuring].
MAYA: Louder. I can’t hear your voice. RISA: My full name is Risa Anggraeni. I love watching movies.
MAYA: What about you? [pointing to Indra] INDRA: My full name is Indra Purnama. I love traveling.
MAYA: Okay. What about you? [pointing to Siti] SITI: My full name is Siti Maryani. I love reading novels.
As the above excerpt illustrates, after asking the students to listen to the stimulus material, Maya does not invite them to discuss their answers voluntarily. Instead, she
says, “how about you?” to control which student is to answer the question. Furthermore, Maya does not provide feedback on the students’ response or use the third turn of the
IRF pattern to provide more opportunities to speak up. Her interaction only focuses exclusively on the material so that the students have limited opportunity to be more
active in the classroom activities. The next subsection of this chapter discusses the relationship between Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance and capital, field, and
practice.
5.4.1.2 Relationship between Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance and capital, field, and practice
As discussed in Chapter 2, habitus, capital, combine to generate an agent’s practices within hisher field. Accordingly, Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance
alongside her institutional professionalism and personal cultural capital drive her teaching practices within her field. Maya’s ability to speak English fluently with good
117 pronunciation and her public university training empower her pedagogic disposition to
dominance. This disposition then produces her teaching actions in the particular sub- field smaller field; that is, a large listening class in a traditional language laboratory
with a majority of low-input students. Maya exercises control over the students’ learning, dominates the talk during the lesson, and nominates which students are to
answer the questions. She commented, “I’m the one who controls the students in the class, so I will give them instructions and then they have to follow and ask some
questions. That’s it” Interview 1, 17102011. This statement supports the research finding that Maya’s practice is shaped by a pedagogic disposition to dominance.
It may be argued that Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance in her listening class leads to monotonous teaching. Maya considers listening to be a
monotonous subject and finds it difficult to include interesting and challenging activities in the class. This view is demonstrated in her comment, “I’ve had plenty experiences to
teach listening subject, but I lack teaching methods” Interview 1, 17102011. She relies on the same routine of class activities: explaining and discussing difficult words
embedded in the conversation as a pre-activity; playing the tape, asking the students to answer the questions and discussing the correct answers as during-activities; and asking
some referential questions as a post-activity. Moreover, Maya’s class is text book dominated. Indeed, she stringently follows the exercises provided the text book and
tends to spend the whole lesson on one activity without any variation. Based on both the observation of the lesson and the class videotape, Maya also seldom used the
whiteboard to help explain the teaching material to the students and she preferred to remain seated in her chair while teaching rather than move about the class. Maya
confessed, “I see myself as a monotonous person in listening class” Interview 2, 30012012.
When asked about her experience with her teachers during listening classes, Maya reported:
The first time I got listening subject was when I entered university. My teacher at that time was really dominant in the class and her teaching activity lacked in
variety and interest. My teacher just asked the students to listen to a tape, answer questions, and retell the conversation. There was no variation. My
teacher did not discuss difficult words and she also had a lot of control over her students’ learning Interview 3, 06062012.
118 From the above statements, it is evident that Maya herself experienced monotonous
listening classes during her training. Borg 2004 stated that many teachers uncritically reproduced pedagogies from their own school experience. Accordingly, Maya’s
experience with her listening teacher seems to have significantly influenced the way she teaches. The suggestion that her pedagogical practice is consistent with what she
experienced as a student reflects the notion of “the apprenticeship of observation” Lortie, 1975. Lortie noted that students spend thousands of hours as observers of their
teachers’ instructional practice and that this has a great impact on their conceptualisation of teaching. Student teachers will therefore unconsciously imitate the
way their former teachers taught. This apprenticeship of observation transforms into “ready-made recipes for action and interpretation that do not require testing or analysis
while promising familiar, safe results” Hamman et al., 2010, p. 161. In Maya’s case, her apprenticeship of observation resulted in her perception of how to teach listening as
a subject. Specifically, Maya tends to be the dominant figure in the classroom and relies on a monotonous teaching routine.
Jenkins 1992 explained that habitus does not stand alone, but it is connected with the environment, other actions, and other interactions. The sub-field smaller field
where Maya did her practice– a traditional language laboratory as her environment with tape and a whiteboard as the only teaching media to support the teaching and learning
process as discussed in Chapter 4 – encourages monotonous teaching practices as a result of her pedagogic disposition to dominance. It may have been the case that with
more facilities, such as a video camera, screen projector, or computer, Maya would have been more likely to develop more interesting and challenging activities. Maya is
unsatisfied with the condition of the low-tech laboratory and expressed her desire to use the multimedia laboratory. However, she is unaware of the correct procedures to follow
to book the multimedia laboratory due to her status as a part-time teacher. Maya therefore struggles to create a more interactive classroom context in which the students
enjoy greater participation in the activities. Given that Maya has control over the students’ learning, dominates the talk in
the classroom, and nominates which students are to answer her questions, the students invariably play a passive role in the lessons. The students are not given the opportunity
to express themselves and direct their own learning. They are also demotivated because Maya’s pedagogic disposition to dominance leaves no space for them to exercise
agency. Exploring ways of getting the students to ask questions rather than asking all of
119 the questions, and involving the students in the decision making in relation to what they
want and need to learn might contribute to positioning the students as independent and agentive language learners. In addition, if there is greater balance in the amount of
productive talk generated in the classroom might encourage the students to participate more actively in learning activities. The next section of this chapter describes another of
Maya’s pedagogic disposition that shapes her teaching practice.
5.4.2 Pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance
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