ABSTRACT
Drawing on video data from an adult ESL class, this single case analysis examines one language-learner’s telling of domestic abuse during class discussion, with a focus on how the trajectory of the telling is shaped by the teacher’s and other students’ responses. In this study, we show (1) how the delicate telling is volunteered and designed as a gloss, (2) how the teacher responds to the telling with teasing and delivers his version of events, (3) how the instructor’s and the student’s differential understandings of and stances toward the telling are displayed and negotiated, (4) how particulars of the domestic abuse are eventually clarified and explicated, and (5) how the teacher’s delayed understanding, embodied discomfort, and absence of affiliative response stymie the closure of the telling. The analysis offers a concrete example of how a learner-initiated sensitive telling is managed in situ, which sheds light on the challenges and intricacies teachers face in responding to a delicate telling in the adult ESL classroom. This study, then, hopes to contribute to the literature on both teacher management of learner tellings and to the organization of a delicate telling in a public setting.
