A Tentative Analysis Of Quoted Direct Speech In Classroom Discourse

Different from traditional classroom discourse studies, the present paper investigates from a micro angle:quoted direct speech. It focuses on the use of quoted direct speech in Harvard open online course Positive Psychology from which180direct quotations were carefully noted down from21video lectures of a semester. They were classified according to their sources, descriptions of sources, quotative verbs, length and functions. Following the trend of exploring quoted speech with real spoken data and from the perspective of discourse-pragmatics, the study draws on applicable analytical procedures from Plett’s theories of quoted direct speech from intertextuality.Firstly, we have found that the distribution of direct quotations in this successful course is not arbitrary but well planed, which is affected by the arrangement of course content, topics, time duration of a topic and personal teaching style. Secondly, the diversity of quoted direct speech for a successful course should be fulfilled not only in its sources, but also in quotative verbs and length. Thirdly, in classroom context, the majority of direct quotations play an important role in providing evidence to support the Professor’s claims, and constituting an intertextuality context and a frame of academic references.As an empirical project based on data collected from a successful course Positive Psychology in which quoted direct speech is a distinctive feature, the present study contributes to pragmatic research of quoted direct speech based on naturalistic or oral speech data. It is a study of quoted direct speech in classroom discourse with focus on the Professor’s discourse under classroom context, which has rarely been discussed. Apart from its academic value, this research is significant for pedagogic practice in raising teachers’awareness of adopting quoted direct speech in class and of paying due attention to the use of quoted direct speech in a course which helps to effectively integrate academic research and personal views into a course.