The subject of our research aims to examine how a professor delivers course material to

students in a larger classroom as opposed to smaller classrooms. By observing many elements

including the student-teacher interaction, language, tone of voice and body language, a
correlation may exist between the varying teaching styles and methods used by the professor that
may be most specific to larger environments. Ahearn addresses this important issue in her work
as she presents various regions/situations and provides evidence as to how language can shift and
differ in multiple contexts. She notes several components of a language that can be studied;
understanding phonology, semantics, pragmatics and the multifunctionality aspect are a few of
those components in which our research employs to assess teaching styles in an environmentally
specific context.
Similarly, sociolinguistic flexibility, which is introduced in Alims work, strongly relates
to our study as the professor we interviewed confirmed that he shifts speech style according to
various contextual and situational factors such as teaching in lower division versus higher
division classes/ smaller/larger classes. In essence, he alters his language and simplifies complex
terms making the material more understandable and personable for students in larger class sizes.
Further, because we are interested in how students are affected by the professors preferences in
presentation, delivery and/of the course material itself, Tobins work too highlights how
educational reforms were created in Japanese schools ultimately distorting curricula. His study
clearly exhibits the fact that the curriculum and modes of academic instruction are
interconnected with students and their learning.
Likewise, through participant observation and interviews, Kusserows ethnographic
accounts holds similar to our choice of methodology. Her work at the Queens and Queenston
preschools also provides insight to child-teacher interaction in which our research is greatly

concerned withhow classroom environments shape the students. Nevertheless, while in

Kusserow intends to distinguish how students acquire a sense of self through interactions, our
study seeks to determine how interactions and encountered environments shape students and
their learning.

Bibliography
Ahearn, L. (2011). Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology.
Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 2 The Research Process in Linguistic
Anthropology
(pp. 31-49).
Alim, H. Samy (2006). Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture. New
York and London:
Routledge. Chapter 3 Talking Black in this White Mans World: Linguistic
Supremacy, Linguistic
Equanimity, and the Politics of Language: pp. 51 68.
Kusserow, A. (2004) American Individualisms. New York: Palgrave.
Tobin, J., M. Karasawa, and Y. Hsueh (2004). Komatsudani Then and Now:
Continuity
and Change in a Japanese Preschool. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 5(2):
128 144.