Cover not available

Article published In: Interdisciplinary approaches to the language of pop culture
Edited by Rocío Montoro and Valentin Werner
[English Text Construction 16:2] 2023
► pp. 144–168

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Stylistics, pop culture, and educational research

A systematized review and case study

 | University of Sunderland
Published online: 29 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00058.man
Abstract
This paper explores how educational research and stylistics, fields that rarely intersect, can be in closer dialogue in the study of pop culture texts, artefacts of interest to scholars in both disciplines. I establish in a systematized critical interpretive synthesis that educational research tends to treat pop culture texts as documents. I show that this in turn tends to drive content-focused analyses that stay, from a linguistic point of view, at the surface of the texts. In response, I offer a stylistic analysis of a pop culture text, an episode from the situation comedy The Big Bang Theory that features an English language learner. I employ conversation analysis to interpret the dialogue and demonstrate how a linguistic approach opens up readings on the discursive construction of phenomena such as belonging and exclusion.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pop culture texts in the education research tradition: A systematized review
    • 2.1Phase 1: Reasons for the review
    • 2.2Phase 2: Deciding what is relevant
    • 2.3Phase 3: Reading the studies
    • 2.4Phases 4–6: Determining how the studies are related, translating the studies, and synthesizing translations
  • 3.The synthesis
  • 4.Results of the review
    • 4.1Historical readings
    • 4.2Synchronic readings
    • 4.3Instrumental teacher training explorations
    • 4.4How teachers are portrayed
  • 5.Reading pop culture texts as documents: The consequences
  • 6.Pop culture as art in language: Taking a linguistic approach
    • 6.1The stylistic analysis of a pop culture text
      • 6.1.1Turn-taking between the native speakers
      • 6.1.2Preference organization and the native speakers
      • 6.1.3Recipient design in the native speaker talk
    • 6.2The contrasting pattern: The native speakers and Mrs. Petrescu
      • 6.2.1(Not) turn-taking with Mrs. Petrescu
      • 6.2.2(Not) talking with Mrs. Petrescu: Repair and audience positioning
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
References
Alexander, Patricia A. 2020. Methodological guidance paper: The art and science of qualitative systematic reviews. Review of Educational Research 90(1). 6–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Amundsen, Cheryl & Mary Wilson. 2012. Are we asking the right questions? A conceptual review of the educational development literature in higher education. Review of Educational Research 82(1). 90–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booth, Andrew. 2006. “Brimful of STARLITE”: Toward standards for reporting literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 94(4). 421–429.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booth, Andrew, Anthea Sutton & Diana Papaioannou. 2016. Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Britten, Nicky, Rona Campbell, Catherine Pope, Jenny Donovan, Myfanwy Morgan & Roisin Pill. 2002. Using meta-ethnography to synthesize qualitative research: A worked example. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 7(4). 209–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bubel, Claudia M. 2008. Film audiences as overhearers. Journal of Pragmatics 40(1). 55–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, Ashleigh, Helen Hall & Beverley Copnell. 2016. A guide to writing a qualitative systematic review protocol to enhance evidence-based practice in nursing and health care. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing 13(3). 241–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 1998. (Im)politeness in dramatic dialogue. In Jonathan Culpeper, Mick Short & Peter Verdonk (eds.), 83–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Mich Short & Peter Verdonk (eds.). 1998. Exploring the language of drama: From text to context. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denscombe, Martyn. 2017. The good research guide for small-scale social research projects. London: McGraw Hill Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellsmore, Susan. 2005. Carry on, teachers! Representations of the teaching profession in screen culture. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grant, Maria J. & Andrew Booth. 2009. A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal 261. 91–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herman, Vimala. 1995. Dramatic discourse: Dialogue as interaction in plays. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Christian R. 2023. The art of turn-taking in movie phone call openings. In Christoph Schubert & Valentin Werner (eds.), 130–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kozloff, Sarah. 2000. Overhearing film dialogue. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCulloch, Gary. 2009. The moral universe of Mr. Chips: Veteran teachers in British literature and drama. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice 15(4). 409–420. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Documentary methods. In Robert Coe, Michael Waring, Larry V. Hedges & James Arthur (eds.), Research methods and methodologies in education, 215–222. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Peter M. 2011. A critical analysis of the research on student homelessness. Review of Educational Research 81(3). 308–337. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noblit, George W. & R. Dwight Hare. 1988. Meta-ethnography: Synthesizing qualitative studies. Los Angeles: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Meta-ethnography: Synthesizing qualitative studies. In George W. Noblit (ed.), Particularities: Collected essays on ethnography and education, 93–123. Bern: Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nye, Elizabeth, G. J. Melendez-Torres & Chris Bonell. 2016. Origins, methods and advances in qualitative meta-synthesis. Review of Education 4(1). 57–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pagatpatan, Celso. 2017. What does “translation” mean in meta-ethnography and how it is being done? ResearchGate. [URL]
Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & John Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis, 57–101. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Punch, Keith F. 2014. Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Punch, Keith F. & Alis Oancea. 2014. Introduction to research methods in education. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff & Gail Jefferson. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50(4). 696–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sattar, Raabia, Rebecca Lawton, Maria Panagioti & Judith Johnson. 2021. Meta-ethnography in health care research: A guide to using a meta-ethnographic approach for literature synthesis. BMC Health Services Research 21(50). 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Harvey Sacks. 1973. Opening up closings. Semiotica 81. 289–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schubert, Christoph. 2023. Suspense in film dialogue: Screening Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. In Christoph Schubert & Valentin Werner (eds.), 109–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schubert, Christoph & Valentin Werner (eds.). 2023. Stylistic approaches to pop culture. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Short, Mick. 1989. Discourse analysis and the analysis of drama. In Ronald Carter & Paul Simpson (eds.), Language, discourse and literature, 139–168. London: Unwin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. London: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsui, Amy B. M. 1994. English Conversation. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Werner, Valentin. 2018. Linguistics and pop culture: Setting the scene(s). In Valentin Werner (ed.), The language of pop culture, 3–26. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whittemore, Robin, Ariana Chao, Myoungock Jang, Karl E. Minges, & Chorong Park. 2014. Methods for knowledge synthesis: An overview. Heart and Lung 431. 453–461. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue