H/W due Friday 9th March - Using and explaining theory

Task: Explanation of a term or theory and use of a quote to explore how that term or theory allows us to say something interesting about the language used. Include the context and GAP.

The Unequal encounters is a theory made by Norman Flairclough, overall it tells us that in a conversation there will always be a more powerful, dominant participant. This can be anyone from friends to political people having an argument- society today either make it evident there is a power struggle or they subconsciously comment and make repercussions that can lead to an unequal encounter.  Some things that can be defined as an unequal encounter:

-          Opening and closings of conversations

-          Showing agreement or disagreement

-          Introducing bad news and how they tell it

-          Conversational repair

-          False starts

-          Adjacency pairs

-          Shifting a certain topic

-          How they turn take and speak to one another

Text between a teacher and a student:

Because this text is between a teacher and some students, the teacher holds the instrumental power although Alex challenges his/her authority throughout this encounter. By stating that it’s an unequal encounter it makes the audience assume that people will respect the teacher because she will automatically hold the most power, however what is evident in this text is that Alex is trying to gain the most power and present the teacher as being weaker, but when Alex challenges her by saying “what if I don’t answer?” the teacher replies “Is that a threat? Answer my question”, the powerful imperative ‘answer’ is declaring that Alex need to do what she says. She also uses the personal pronoun ‘my’ to show that he is the one that needs to answer his question and not the other way around; she doesn’t fall into his trap of answering his question instead of him answering her- still making her hold the most power between the two of them. Although we know by the stage direction: “Smiles” that Alex is only jokingly challenging her to see what she would do, the teachers stage direction “(half jokingly)” makes the audience imagine her saying it in a possibly harsher and louder voice- which is what could make Alex’s reply  undermine himself by saying “I don’t know I mean”.