Julia Snell
Biographic Data
| ID | 738994 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julia Snell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julia |
| FAMILY NAME | Snell |
| SIGNATURE | SNELL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0337-7212 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 159 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Using linguistic ethnography to uncover the mechanisms through which underprivileged students are denied access to classroom dialogue
This article opens up the ‘black box’ of classroom interaction to investigate why opportunities to participate in academically productive (or ‘dialogic’) classroom discussion may be more readily available to some groups of students than others, creating educational inequities. Prior research has attributed disparities in classroom participation to perceived deficits in underprivileged students’ communicative abilities. Drawing on linguistic ethno…
Blurring the boundaries: Opening and sustaining dialogic spaces
Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic space is facilitated by tension between perspectives; openness to others, which is facilitated by ego…
The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate
England has had a schools inspectorate since 1839, first in the form of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI), and since 1992, in the form of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The inspectorate, a workforce made up of a majority of white inspectors, conduct regular inspections of all state schools in England, producing reports which comment on various aspects of educational provision, including teachers' an…
Développer la pédagogie par le dialogue: Répondre à la contestation d’un élève
En écho à la notion de best practice largement répandue dans le monde de laformation professionnelle, la contribution illustre les apports et les limites d’uneapproche dialogique de l’apprentissage de la litéracie et l’applique à la formation desenseignants. Elle prend pour exemple une séquence dans laquelle une enseignanteenvisage avec ses élèves les différentes manières de commencer un récit. Dans unesprit dialogique, la contribution relaie de …
Low Ability,” Participation, and Identity in Dialogic Pedagogy
Teachers are increasingly called on to use dialogic teaching practices to engage active pupil participation in academically challenging classroom discourse. Such practices are in tension with commonly held beliefs about pupil ability as fixed and/or context independent. Moreover, teaching practices that seek to make pupil thinking visible can also make perceived pupil “inarticulateness” and/or “low ability” visible, with important implications fo…
Solidarity, stance, and class identities
Scholars have explained working-class speakers' continued use of stigmatised vernaculars as a response to their relative powerlessness in relation to the standard language market. Research has shown how, in the face of this powerlessness, working-class communities turn to group solidarity, and use of the vernacular is seen as part of this more general orientation. As a result, two competing social values-status and solidarity-have featured promin…
Critical reflections on the role of the sociolinguist in UK language debates
Mark Lewis invites us to reconsider the theory of social change that underpins Labov'sprinciple of error correction(PEC), which assumes that change will occur when researchers share their (privileged) linguistic knowledge with the wider public. This is a welcome invitation, for it opens up space for critical reflection on the role sociolinguists can play in public debates about language. As my use of the termcriticalsuggests, I align with Lewis' …
Dialogic teaching to the high-stakes standardised test
Within current educational discourse, dialogic pedagogy is diametrically opposed to teaching to the test, especially the high-stakes standardised test. While dialogic pedagogy is about critical thinking, authenticity and freedom, test preparation evokes all that is narrow, instrumental and cynical in education. In this paper, we argue that such positioning of dialogic pedagogy as antithetical to testing is detrimental to attempts both to foster d…
Linguistic Ethnography: Interdisciplinary Explorations
Linguistic Ethnography
The collection demonstrates the ways in which established traditions and scholars have come together under the umbrella of linguistic ethnography to explore important questions about how language and
Linguistic Ethnography: Collecting, Analysing and Presenting Data
This is an engaging interdisciplinary guide to the unique role of language within ethnography The book provides a philosophical overview of the field alongside practical support for designing and developing your own ethnographic research. It demonstrates how to build and develop arguments and engages with practical issues such as ethics, transcription and impact. There are chapter long case studies based on real research that will explain key the…
From moves to sequences: Expanding the unit of analysis in the study of classroom discourse
What is the appropriate unit of analysis for the study of classroom discourse? One common analytic strategy employs individual discourse moves, which are coded, counted and used as indicators of the quality of classroom talk. In this article we question this practice, arguing that discourse moves are positioned within sequences that critically shape their meaning and effect. We illustrate this theoretical claim through exploration of a corpus of …
Beyond a unitary conception of pedagogic pace: Quantitative measurement and ethnographic experience
English education policy‐makers have targeted classroom time as a key area for regulation and intervention, with ‘brisk pace’ widely accepted as a feature of good teaching practice. We problematise this conventional wisdom through an exploration of objective and subjective dimensions of lesson pace in a corpus of 30 Key Stage 2 literacy lessons from three classrooms in one London school. Systematic classroom observation produced an anomaly: the l…
Dialect, interaction and class positioning at school: From Deficit to Difference to Repertoire
Sociolinguists have been fighting dialect prejudice since the 1960s, but deficit views of non-standard English are regaining currency in educational discourse. In this paper I argue that the traditional sociolinguistic response - stressing dialect systematicity and tolerance of 'difference' - may no longer be effective by questioning a key assumption that both deficit and difference approaches share, namely that there exist discrete varieties of …
Interrogating video data: Systematic quantitative analysis versus micro‐ethnographic analysis
This paper demonstrates how systematic observation software, such as The Observer XT, can be used to organise and manage large video corpora, assist in case selection, and facilitate comparability and cross referencing with a corpus. While this software has conventionally been used to produce quantitative results that can be subjected to statistical analyses, it will be argued that it can also assist in complementary qualitative analyses. Drawing…
Promises and Problems of Teaching With Popular Culture: A Linguistic Ethnographic Analysis of Discourse Genre Mixing in a Literacy Lesson
This article problematises a broad consensus in favour of importing popular culture into classrooms as a means of engaging pupils, transforming interactional norms and facilitating pupil understanding. A literacy lesson in which an English primary school teacher invoked the televised talent show, X‐factor, in organising the class to provide feedback on pupil writing, was video‐recorded and subjected to detailed linguistic ethnographic analyses. T…
Professional vision and the politics of teacher learning
From sociolinguistic variation to socially strategic stylisation1: Socially Strategic Stylisation
This article investigates the indexical relation between language, interactional stance and social class. Quantitative sociolinguistic analysis of a linguistic variable (the first person possessive singular) is combined with interactional analysis of the way one particular variant (possessive 'me', as in Me pencil's up me jumper) is used by speakers in 'stylised' interactional performances. The aim of this analysis is to explore: (1) how possessi…
Schema theory and the humour of Little Britain
LITTLE BRITAIN is a television comedy show in the UK. Recurring characters appear in its episodes enacting situations that can be said to satirize British society. It was first aired by the BBC in February 2003. Little Britain has quickly amassed a loyal following and has grown significantly in popularity. It has won a number of prestigious comedy awards including ‘Best Comedy Performance’ and ‘Comedy Programme or Series Award’ at the BAFTAs (Bri…
Dialect, interaction and class positioning at school: From Deficit to Difference to Repertoire
Sociolinguists have been fighting dialect prejudice since the 1960s, but deficit views of non-standard English are regaining currency in educational discourse. In this paper I argue that the traditional sociolinguistic response - stressing dialect systematicity and tolerance of 'difference' - may no longer be effective by questioning a key assumption that both deficit and difference approaches share, namely that there exist discrete varieties of …
From sociolinguistic variation to socially strategic stylisation1: Socially Strategic Stylisation
This article investigates the indexical relation between language, interactional stance and social class. Quantitative sociolinguistic analysis of a linguistic variable (the first person possessive singular) is combined with interactional analysis of the way one particular variant (possessive 'me', as in Me pencil's up me jumper) is used by speakers in 'stylised' interactional performances. The aim of this analysis is to explore: (1) how possessi…
The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate
England has had a schools inspectorate since 1839, first in the form of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI), and since 1992, in the form of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The inspectorate, a workforce made up of a majority of white inspectors, conduct regular inspections of all state schools in England, producing reports which comment on various aspects of educational provision, including teachers' an…
Solidarity, stance, and class identities
Scholars have explained working-class speakers' continued use of stigmatised vernaculars as a response to their relative powerlessness in relation to the standard language market. Research has shown how, in the face of this powerlessness, working-class communities turn to group solidarity, and use of the vernacular is seen as part of this more general orientation. As a result, two competing social values-status and solidarity-have featured promin…
Professional vision and the politics of teacher learning
Interrogating video data: Systematic quantitative analysis versus micro‐ethnographic analysis
This paper demonstrates how systematic observation software, such as The Observer XT, can be used to organise and manage large video corpora, assist in case selection, and facilitate comparability and cross referencing with a corpus. While this software has conventionally been used to produce quantitative results that can be subjected to statistical analyses, it will be argued that it can also assist in complementary qualitative analyses. Drawing…
Blurring the boundaries: Opening and sustaining dialogic spaces
Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic space is facilitated by tension between perspectives; openness to others, which is facilitated by ego…
Low Ability,” Participation, and Identity in Dialogic Pedagogy
Teachers are increasingly called on to use dialogic teaching practices to engage active pupil participation in academically challenging classroom discourse. Such practices are in tension with commonly held beliefs about pupil ability as fixed and/or context independent. Moreover, teaching practices that seek to make pupil thinking visible can also make perceived pupil “inarticulateness” and/or “low ability” visible, with important implications fo…
From moves to sequences: Expanding the unit of analysis in the study of classroom discourse
What is the appropriate unit of analysis for the study of classroom discourse? One common analytic strategy employs individual discourse moves, which are coded, counted and used as indicators of the quality of classroom talk. In this article we question this practice, arguing that discourse moves are positioned within sequences that critically shape their meaning and effect. We illustrate this theoretical claim through exploration of a corpus of …
Promises and Problems of Teaching With Popular Culture: A Linguistic Ethnographic Analysis of Discourse Genre Mixing in a Literacy Lesson
This article problematises a broad consensus in favour of importing popular culture into classrooms as a means of engaging pupils, transforming interactional norms and facilitating pupil understanding. A literacy lesson in which an English primary school teacher invoked the televised talent show, X‐factor, in organising the class to provide feedback on pupil writing, was video‐recorded and subjected to detailed linguistic ethnographic analyses. T…
Critical reflections on the role of the sociolinguist in UK language debates
Mark Lewis invites us to reconsider the theory of social change that underpins Labov'sprinciple of error correction(PEC), which assumes that change will occur when researchers share their (privileged) linguistic knowledge with the wider public. This is a welcome invitation, for it opens up space for critical reflection on the role sociolinguists can play in public debates about language. As my use of the termcriticalsuggests, I align with Lewis' …
Dialogic teaching to the high-stakes standardised test
Within current educational discourse, dialogic pedagogy is diametrically opposed to teaching to the test, especially the high-stakes standardised test. While dialogic pedagogy is about critical thinking, authenticity and freedom, test preparation evokes all that is narrow, instrumental and cynical in education. In this paper, we argue that such positioning of dialogic pedagogy as antithetical to testing is detrimental to attempts both to foster d…
Beyond a unitary conception of pedagogic pace: Quantitative measurement and ethnographic experience
English education policy‐makers have targeted classroom time as a key area for regulation and intervention, with ‘brisk pace’ widely accepted as a feature of good teaching practice. We problematise this conventional wisdom through an exploration of objective and subjective dimensions of lesson pace in a corpus of 30 Key Stage 2 literacy lessons from three classrooms in one London school. Systematic classroom observation produced an anomaly: the l…
Schema theory and the humour of Little Britain
LITTLE BRITAIN is a television comedy show in the UK. Recurring characters appear in its episodes enacting situations that can be said to satirize British society. It was first aired by the BBC in February 2003. Little Britain has quickly amassed a loyal following and has grown significantly in popularity. It has won a number of prestigious comedy awards including ‘Best Comedy Performance’ and ‘Comedy Programme or Series Award’ at the BAFTAs (Bri…
Professional vision and the politics of teacher learning
From sociolinguistic variation to socially strategic stylisation1: Socially Strategic Stylisation
This article investigates the indexical relation between language, interactional stance and social class. Quantitative sociolinguistic analysis of a linguistic variable (the first person possessive singular) is combined with interactional analysis of the way one particular variant (possessive 'me', as in Me pencil's up me jumper) is used by speakers in 'stylised' interactional performances. The aim of this analysis is to explore: (1) how possessi…
Interrogating video data: Systematic quantitative analysis versus micro‐ethnographic analysis
This paper demonstrates how systematic observation software, such as The Observer XT, can be used to organise and manage large video corpora, assist in case selection, and facilitate comparability and cross referencing with a corpus. While this software has conventionally been used to produce quantitative results that can be subjected to statistical analyses, it will be argued that it can also assist in complementary qualitative analyses. Drawing…
Promises and Problems of Teaching With Popular Culture: A Linguistic Ethnographic Analysis of Discourse Genre Mixing in a Literacy Lesson
This article problematises a broad consensus in favour of importing popular culture into classrooms as a means of engaging pupils, transforming interactional norms and facilitating pupil understanding. A literacy lesson in which an English primary school teacher invoked the televised talent show, X‐factor, in organising the class to provide feedback on pupil writing, was video‐recorded and subjected to detailed linguistic ethnographic analyses. T…
Beyond a unitary conception of pedagogic pace: Quantitative measurement and ethnographic experience
English education policy‐makers have targeted classroom time as a key area for regulation and intervention, with ‘brisk pace’ widely accepted as a feature of good teaching practice. We problematise this conventional wisdom through an exploration of objective and subjective dimensions of lesson pace in a corpus of 30 Key Stage 2 literacy lessons from three classrooms in one London school. Systematic classroom observation produced an anomaly: the l…
Dialect, interaction and class positioning at school: From Deficit to Difference to Repertoire
Sociolinguists have been fighting dialect prejudice since the 1960s, but deficit views of non-standard English are regaining currency in educational discourse. In this paper I argue that the traditional sociolinguistic response - stressing dialect systematicity and tolerance of 'difference' - may no longer be effective by questioning a key assumption that both deficit and difference approaches share, namely that there exist discrete varieties of …
Linguistic Ethnography
The collection demonstrates the ways in which established traditions and scholars have come together under the umbrella of linguistic ethnography to explore important questions about how language and
Linguistic Ethnography: Collecting, Analysing and Presenting Data
This is an engaging interdisciplinary guide to the unique role of language within ethnography The book provides a philosophical overview of the field alongside practical support for designing and developing your own ethnographic research. It demonstrates how to build and develop arguments and engages with practical issues such as ethics, transcription and impact. There are chapter long case studies based on real research that will explain key the…
From moves to sequences: Expanding the unit of analysis in the study of classroom discourse
What is the appropriate unit of analysis for the study of classroom discourse? One common analytic strategy employs individual discourse moves, which are coded, counted and used as indicators of the quality of classroom talk. In this article we question this practice, arguing that discourse moves are positioned within sequences that critically shape their meaning and effect. We illustrate this theoretical claim through exploration of a corpus of …
Linguistic Ethnography: Interdisciplinary Explorations
Dialogic teaching to the high-stakes standardised test
Within current educational discourse, dialogic pedagogy is diametrically opposed to teaching to the test, especially the high-stakes standardised test. While dialogic pedagogy is about critical thinking, authenticity and freedom, test preparation evokes all that is narrow, instrumental and cynical in education. In this paper, we argue that such positioning of dialogic pedagogy as antithetical to testing is detrimental to attempts both to foster d…
Low Ability,” Participation, and Identity in Dialogic Pedagogy
Teachers are increasingly called on to use dialogic teaching practices to engage active pupil participation in academically challenging classroom discourse. Such practices are in tension with commonly held beliefs about pupil ability as fixed and/or context independent. Moreover, teaching practices that seek to make pupil thinking visible can also make perceived pupil “inarticulateness” and/or “low ability” visible, with important implications fo…
Solidarity, stance, and class identities
Scholars have explained working-class speakers' continued use of stigmatised vernaculars as a response to their relative powerlessness in relation to the standard language market. Research has shown how, in the face of this powerlessness, working-class communities turn to group solidarity, and use of the vernacular is seen as part of this more general orientation. As a result, two competing social values-status and solidarity-have featured promin…
Critical reflections on the role of the sociolinguist in UK language debates
Mark Lewis invites us to reconsider the theory of social change that underpins Labov'sprinciple of error correction(PEC), which assumes that change will occur when researchers share their (privileged) linguistic knowledge with the wider public. This is a welcome invitation, for it opens up space for critical reflection on the role sociolinguists can play in public debates about language. As my use of the termcriticalsuggests, I align with Lewis' …
Développer la pédagogie par le dialogue: Répondre à la contestation d’un élève
En écho à la notion de best practice largement répandue dans le monde de laformation professionnelle, la contribution illustre les apports et les limites d’uneapproche dialogique de l’apprentissage de la litéracie et l’applique à la formation desenseignants. Elle prend pour exemple une séquence dans laquelle une enseignanteenvisage avec ses élèves les différentes manières de commencer un récit. Dans unesprit dialogique, la contribution relaie de …
The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate
England has had a schools inspectorate since 1839, first in the form of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI), and since 1992, in the form of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The inspectorate, a workforce made up of a majority of white inspectors, conduct regular inspections of all state schools in England, producing reports which comment on various aspects of educational provision, including teachers' an…
Blurring the boundaries: Opening and sustaining dialogic spaces
Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic space is facilitated by tension between perspectives; openness to others, which is facilitated by ego…
Using linguistic ethnography to uncover the mechanisms through which underprivileged students are denied access to classroom dialogue
This article opens up the ‘black box’ of classroom interaction to investigate why opportunities to participate in academically productive (or ‘dialogic’) classroom discussion may be more readily available to some groups of students than others, creating educational inequities. Prior research has attributed disparities in classroom participation to perceived deficits in underprivileged students’ communicative abilities. Drawing on linguistic ethno…
Sociology (16 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (10 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Ethnography (8 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (8 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works)