Analele tiinifice ale UAIC, Iai (serie noua), tomul XII/2009, ed. UAIC Iai, (pp.

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EXPECTANCY VIOLATION AS DISRUPTIVE CLASSROOM
BEHAVIOR A CASE STUDY
By Ileana Oana Macari
Alexanr! I"an C!#a$ Uni%er&i'y "( Ia)i
1. In'r"!c'i"n
This paper intends to explore two instances of expectancy violation in classroom context,
with the identification of the rules broken by the beginning teacher in question. The prevailing
reason behind the purpose of the present article is that an important percentage of the students in
the Faculty of Letters become language teachers after graduation, and I feel that they need to be
familiaried with at least some of the !dangers" ahead in the profession. # second reason is that,
according to recent surveys conducted in $omania, managers generally think that university
graduates are deficient in the practical skills required on the %ob market, while students and
graduates regard the academic curricula as overwhelmed by theory and lacking in practice.
&bviously, no teacher goes in front of a class psychologically and contextually
unprepared even on his'her first day of work, since it is only expectable that a person having
undergone the (entire) cycle of formal education has managed to grow familiar with its rules and
conventions. *qually true is that nobody goes in front of a class totally prepared for potential
discipline problems, and this might remain true even after many years in the line of work,
considering how resourceful children will be. +evertheless, sometimes it can prove useful to
reflect on possible classroom situations where content knowledge provides no answer.
2. C"n'ex'
The case I choose to analye here is not a real life classroom situation, but that makes it
no less exploitable, for reasons I will explain further on. I selected it from *velyn ,augh"s
Decline and Fall, a novel based partially on his schooldays at Lancing -ollege and his ./01
experience as a teacher in ,ales. In ./02, when the novel was published (,augh"s first, actually),
the writer himself was 01, close in time both to his school years and his short teaching
experience, and thus 3ritish education, schools, teachers and students become underlying, if
obscured, issues of the book.
The novel follows the twenty year old 4aul 4ennyfeather who, when unfairly expelled
from &xford, is forced to become a schoolmaster at a private boys5 school in ,ales. In chapter .,
following a brief %ob interview, 4aul acquires a position at Llanabba -astle in 6outh ,ales, a
school which, of the four ratings 7 Leading 6chool, First7$ate 6chool, 8ood 6chool, and 6chool 7
rates only 56chool5. In spite of the vast inexperience 4ennyfeather declares, 9r. #ugustus Fagan
hires him, for a minimal salary, to teach several sub%ect matters for which he actually had no
credentials. :e thus becomes one of the misfits in that school, who have ended up teaching by
accident %ust as he has.
3. Di&c!&&i"n
The excerpts I select for the discussion follow 4aul 4ennyfeather during his first day as a
schoolmaster and feature !linguistic events" recogniable by any person who has received a
formal education. #lmost everybody is acquainted with the norms that govern this type of activity
and some aspects are so familiar to us that even a slight change in the !ritual" leads, as in the case
of the fragments below, to expectancy violation.
Dumb with terror he went into his own classroom.
Ten boys sat before him, their hands folded, their eyes bright with expectation.
'Good morning, sir', said the one nearest him.
'Good morning, ' said Paul.
'Good morning, sir,' said the next.
'Good morning, 'said Paul.
'Good morning, sir, 'said the next.
'Oh, shut up,' said Paul.
At this the boy too out a handerchief and began to cry !uietly.
'Oh sir, 'came a chorus of reproaches, 'you'"e hurt his feelings. #e's "ery sensiti"e$ it's
his %elsh blood, you now$ it maes people "ery emotional. &ay 'Good morning' to him,
sir, or he won't be happy all day. After all, it is a good morning, isn't it, sir('
'&ilence)' shouted Paul abo"e the uproar, and for a few moments things were !uieter.
*Decline and Fall, pp. +,-./
The suprasentential structure of the first two sentences quoted above is obviously recognied at
least by those in the trade; because I doubt any teacher was fortunate enough not to have
experienced the feeling of being !dumb with terror" in front of a classroom full of bright7eyed
brats.
# classroom is commonly regarded as a formal speech situation in which the teacher"s
status assigns him' her extra authority in the dynamics of turn7taking. :e' she has the control over
the information exchange, and students do not (ideally<) speak out of turn, nor do they refuse the
turn or provide inappropriate replies. &utside class, as 6acks remarks, any current speaker can
control the next turn by selecting the type of the next utterance. :e' she may produce the first part
of an ad%acency pair, for instance a question or a greeting, which constrains the selected speaker
to produce an appropriate answer or return greeting. This is due to the fact, observed by =ichael
=c-arthy, that pairs of utterances are usually !mutually dependent">
It is possible to state the requirements, in a normal conversational sequence, for
many types of utterances, in terms of what is expected as a response and what
certain responses presuppose. (=c-arthy .//.> ../)
?nlike in ordinary speech situations, in formal ones (classroom, army, religious service etc) the
person who produces the greeting expects a chorus response greeting. #ny deviation from this
rule is perceived as failure or effrontery and is prone to sanction.
The remarks above refer to spoken conversation, but, due to the mimetic character of
literary texts, such results can be applied, under certain reservation, to literary dialogue as well. In
the fragment (which mocks real7life patterns) I quote from the novel, the teacher produces the
first element of such an ad%acency pair @ an utterance having the function of a greeting. Thus, the
appropriate or expectable returned greeting would have been the boys" chorus saying !8ood
morning". It is this incongruity (with a 3ergsonian term), the gap between the teacher"s
expectation and the pupils" that creates a discipline issue.
The students" attempt to reendow with meaning a phatic utterance like !8ood morning",
by innocently asking !After all, it is a good morning, isn't it, sir(0, enlarges the discrepancies
between the established state of affairs and the absurd situation created in the classroom. #gain,
the use of the negative tag7question, in the combination of assertion and negative interrogation,
almost imposes an affirmative answer. Instead, the newly appointed teacher, at his wits" end,
shouts !&ilence<" thus ending a semblance of communication.
Literary dialogue, though not as 5mimetic5 as dramatic dialogue, is, within an accepted
convention, an invented sequence, to a certain degree observing the rules of real conversation. #n
underlying rule in (not only) *nglish conversation is that !at least and not more than one party
talks at a time" (-oulthard, ./AA> B.). -onsequently, patterns have to exist, enabling the
participants to take turns and at the same time to observe the above7mentioned rule. 6acks
suggests three control patterns of the !current" speaker over the next turn> .) the selection of the
next speaker by naming or alluding to him; 0) the selection of the next utterance, but not of the
next speaker; B) the selection of neither (-oulthard, ./AA> B.). In certain situation, extra7authority
is added to the implied one that the current speaker already has. 6uch is the case of classroom
situation, where the teacher is entitled to receive a simultaneous return greeting from all the other
participants.
# different response from the class suggests the denial of this extra7authority. If he' she
formulates a question, he' she can also resort to the first pattern above, naming the participant he'
she has selected. #ll teachers know students hate being called out of their names, so getting their
appellations right is one of the primary concerns of an instructor when he' she has the first
encounter with a new class. 3ut even the well7meaning attempt at finding out the names of the
students, ,augh shows us, can turn into real trouble for a newly appointed teacher>
1 2 suppose the first thing 2 ought to do is to get your names clear0.
' %hat's your name(' he ased, turning to the first boy.
' Tangent, sir'.
' And yours('
' Tangent, sir, ' said the next boy. Paul's heart san.
' 3ut you can't both be called Tangent.'
' 4o sir, 2'm Tangent. #e's 5ust trying to be funny.'
' 2 lie that. 6e trying to be funny) Please, sir, 2'm Tangent, sir$ really 2 am.'
' 2f it comes to that, 'said 7lutterbuc from the bac of the room, ' 'there is only one
Tangent here, and that is me. Anyone else can 5olly go to bla8es.'
Paul felt desperate.
'%ell, is there anyone who isn't Tangent('
9our or fi"e "oices instantly arose.
' 2'm not, sir$ 2'm not Tangent. 2 wouldn't be called Tangent, not on the end of a barge
pole.'
2n a few seconds the room had become di"ided into two parties: Those who were Tangent
and those who were not. 3lows were already being exchanged.'(Decline and Fall, p.12)
,hat actually happens in the excerpt is that, again, 4aul 4ennyfeather, in his pseudo7authoritative
position, tries to establish the above7mentioned ad%acency pairs, by asking questions to which the
students are expected to give the single possible answer, starting from the normal assumption that
each of them has his own name.
Instead, two parties form 7 apparently fighting a war that reminded me of 6wift"s
controversy (in Gulliver's Travels) on the question whether eggs should be broken at the smaller
or larger end. Those who were Tangent and those who were not appear to exchange !ritual"
insults, civil enough at the beginning. Then, like boys do, they seem ready to start a fight> The
artificially built conflict is meant to challenge the teacher"s authority and is indeed very effective,
as the author suggests in his comments> 1Paul0s heart san0, 1Paul felt desperate0.
The use of the deferential address CsirD, six times in five of the six replies belonging to
the students, indicates mock politeness and the intention to pull the teacher"s leg. The boys try to
appear totally co7operative; they fake willingness to play the part that is expected by an instructor
from any learner, and they manage this by resorting to their built7in knowledge of !classroom
ritual". In fact, they are clearly more conversant with it than the novice teacher is and thus, though
4aul is not once contradicted, he eventually finds himself trapped into a farcical situation.
6ince the main purpose of this paper is to identify, for pedagogical reasons, the rules 4aul
4ennyfeather breaks as a new teacher, I will ground part of my comments on some useful tips
recognied as such by both commonsense and literature
(http>''kEeducators.about.com'od'helpfornewteachers'tp'mistakesFnew.htm).
The Llanabba -astle school itself is grimy and depressing, and the other masters
employed there, -aptain 8rimes and =r. 4rendergast are equally unqualified for their %obs. This
obviously is a violation of the hiring prerequisites for teaching positions as we generally know
them>
:istorically, a community granted permission to a person to teach on the basis of
at least one of the following> (a) an assessment of the prospective teacher"s
character, values, and beliefs, usually by a member of the clergy; (b) an
assessment of the prospective teacher"s knowledge in selected domains, usually
by a common or standardied test in the teaching sub%ect; and'or (c) an
assessment by a faculty with regard to the prospective teacher"s course of
professional study, usually with a ma%or emphasis on pedagogy and teaching
skill. (=urray, 0GGA> B2.)
&n his first day there, the beginning teacher arrives in a school where no qualified mentoring is
available. The colleagues, though friendly enough, hate it there and cheerfully announce him he is
going to hate it, too. &n their first encounter, =r. 4rendergast tells 4aul>
';ou'll hate it here. 2 now. 2'"e been here ten years. Grimes only came this term. #e hates
it already. (Decline and Fall, p.2)
The new teacher"s admitted lack of experience and qualifications are all waved away by his
prospective employer>
'2 understand you ha"e had no pre"ious experience('
'4o, sir, 2 am afraid not.'
'%ell, of course, that is in many ways an ad"antage. One too easily ac!uires the
professional tone and loses "ision. (Decline and Fall, p./)
In a school like Llanaba, teaching is not an issue, actually. It is more about how to deflate
discipline problems before they happen and how to deal with them when they have happened. In
the excerpt below, 8rimes matter7of7factly introduces 4aul to the class he is supposed to start
teaching>
'That's your little mob in there,' said Grimes$ 'you let them out at ele"en.'
'3ut what am 2 to teach them(' said Paul in sudden panic.
'Oh, 2 shouldn't try to teach them anything, not 5ust yet, anyway. <ust eep them !uiet.'
(Decline and Fall, p..1)
4aul 4ennyfeather, the character that opens ,augh5 s series of naHfs, is consistent with the
unproductive drifting suggested by his name. Totally harmless, he is unable, in the beginning, to
settle things up with his students. 3ecause, as inexperienced teachers will do, *=/ he is aiming to
befriend his students and thus *>/ damages his ability to control the classroom. *?/ #e is too easy
on discipline, starting out the year with no plan at all and (I)* not setting up proper organi8ation
from the start
:e is taken in by the bogus excessive politeness of the boys, mechanically returns
greetings and this integrates him in a pattern inappropriate in the classroom speech7situation. The
show the weeping boy makes and his colleagues" support and intervention in his favour threaten
what is left of his authority. 3y beginning the class saying, 12 suppose the first thing 2 ought to do
is to get your names clear0. (Decline and Fall, p..1), he *+/ maes his sense of insecurity ob"ious
and the students take advantage of that.
The students in his class are undisciplined, and little or no learning ever takes place here.
&ften the inexperienced teachers" solution to misbehavior in the classroom is *@/ to react to the
beha"ior personally rather than approach the problem professionally. ,hen everyone ad%ourns to
their separate classrooms, 4aul is in a panic at how to handle his first class. 8rimes shows his
typical carelessness and 4rendergast shows his habitual gallows humor. 4aul arrives in his
classroom to find the boys suspiciously well behaved, a condition that quickly degenerates into
chaos. 9esperate to restore order, 4aul is forced to fall back on the 8rimesian method of
simultaneously threatening to beat the boys with a walking stick, while offering a prie.
3lows were already being exchanged, when the door opened and Grimes came in. There
was a slight hush.
'2 thought you might want this,' he said, handing Paul a waling stic. 'And if you tae my
ad"ice, you'll set them something to do.'
#e went out$ and Paul, firmly grasping the waling-stic, faced his form.
'Aisten,' he said. '2 don't care a damn what any of you are called, but if there's another
word from anyone 2 shall eep you all in this afternoon.'
';ou can't eep me in,' said 7lutterbuc$ '2'm going for a wal with 7aptain Grimes.'
'Then 2 shall "ery nearly ill you with this stic. 6eanwhile you will all write an essay on
'&elf-indulgence'. There will be a pri8e of half a crown for the longest essay, irrespecti"e
of any possible merit.'
9rom then onwards all was silence until brea. Paul, still holding his stic, ga8ed
despondently out of the window. BCD
'Did you find those boys difficult to manage(' ased 6r Prendergast, filling his pipe.
'4ot at all,' said Paul.
'Ah, you're lucy. 2 find all boys utterly intractable. *Decline and Fall, p.EG)
*ven nowadays teachers often *,/ use material rewards to moti"ate and recogni8e their students5
good behavior, but this should be replaced by other forms such as special seats, longer recess,
good phone call home, help in another class etc..
&ther mistakes 4aul 4ennyfeather makes during his short teaching career are, in modern
terms> *./ minimi8ing parental communication and in"ol"ement, (as he was intimidated by the
high social rank of his students" parents), *E/ remaining isolated from the school community (as
4aul always withdraws in front of the confessions everybody in the school keeps on making to
him). :e attends social events, eats lunch in the :all, helps colleagues but everything in his
drifting uninvolved manner.
Jet, surprisingly after having broken so many rules, the end of his first week of teaching
finds 4ennyfeather rather content with his situation at Llanabba.
&itting o"er the 7ommon Foom fire that afternoon waiting for the bell for tea,
Paul found himself reflecting that on the whole the last wee had not been !uite
as awful as he had expected. As 3este-7hetwynde had told him, he was a distinct
success with his form$ after the first day an understanding had been established
between them. 2t was tacitly agreed that when Paul wished to read or to write
letters he was allowed to do so undisturbed while he left them to employ the time
as they thought best$ when Paul too it upon him to tal to them about their
lessons they remained silent, and when he set them wor to do some of it was
done. *Decline and Fall, p.@>/
4ennyfeather has come to expect neither too much nor too little from his students and they are
pleased to oblige. Though not at Llanabba by choice or merit, he has settled in moderately well
because he has overcome his fears.
4. C"ncl!&i"n&
#pparently, 4aul 4ennyfeathers is a successful teacher, who manages conflicts and
discipline problems efficiently. The students like him and comply with his semblance of rules
soon enough, they pretend to respect his superiority, at the same time having no interest in
learning anything from him. -hildren normally expect at least certain manifestations of authority
from a teacher, though the solution 4aul resorts to @ that of threatening his pupils with beating
(though not taken at face value by anybody) would no longer be an option today.
#t the end of a week"s teaching, 4aul has overcome his worst fears, although only
moments before entering the class for the first time, he felt !desperate" and !dumb with fear". This
is not obligatory a bad thing, as nowadays it is widely recognied as recommendable even for
experienced teachers.
If teachers did not think or feel in this way, they would be so certain and arrogant
that one would question their understanding of the concept of what it means to
teach. The reality of a classroom is always changing, uncertain, a challenge; but
it is a partnership with the students. It is about the democratic sharing of power in
partnerships to achieve certain tasks> the developmental and intellectual growth
and achievement of the child'adolescent person. (,eston, .//A> /7.G)
The doubts he expressed during the interview concerning his content knowledge and his ability to
teach and cope with pupils are not only natural but, as they are proof of a reflective activity on
teaching, beneficial even today in educational environment
+evertheless, the way in which he becomes a success remains paradoxical, first because
%udged by nowadays standards he would never be hired in any school. That can be explained by
the fact that one of the targets of ,augh"s satire is the 3ritish educational system in his time, as
he had some grudges against it, explainable by his early biography. Thus, both his father and his
brother had been educated at 6herborne, an *nglish public school, which #lec had been asked to
leave during his final because a controversial novel he wrote. The school therefore refused to take
*velyn, and his father sent him to an institution of lesser social prestige. #fter Lancing, he
attended :ertford -ollege, &xford, but neglected academic work and qualified only for a
third7class degree, leaving &xford in ./0I without taking his degree.
The beginning teachers nowadays are more fortunate since extensive literature provides
both models and useful resources in content knowledge and classroom management. The issue of
classroom management and the ways to deal with disruptive behavior is recognied as crucial at
the beginning of the teaching career. In the light of this assumption, the advice 8rimes give
4ennyfeather %ust before the latter starts his first class, that he should first focus on discipline, and
only later on teaching, appears to be strikingly consistent with the results of recent research.
6ome researchers suggest that new teachers face a number of challenges in
Csurvival skills,D such as classroom management, which new teachers regard as a
far7more7pressing concern than issues of content knowledge. Fuller (./E/), for
example, posited that new teachers pass through several stages of development,
beginning with an initial concern about personal adequacy, before they are able
to focus on teaching performance and student learning. Keenman (./2I) cites
student discipline and motivation, individualiing instruction, assessment, and
dealing with parents as new teachers" most7pressing concerns. # series of
in7depth case studies of first7year teachers by 3ullough (./2A, ./2/, .//G) also
found that issues of classroom management overwhelmed new teachers, such that
teachers were able to attend to pupil learning and instructional issues only after
they had established routines and procedures for resolving control problems.
From her review of the literature on new7teacher development, Lagan concluded
that until novices have established standard routines and resolved their images of
self as teacher, they will be obsessed with discipline and class control. #ttempts
to force a different focus may be misguided. (+atara% Lirby, 0GGE> I27I/)
4ennyfeather may have been meant as a satirical negative teaching model yet a reflective view on
his performance can be as useful for the new teacher as the story of the greatest teaching success.
Like 4aul 4ennyfeather, one may be tempted to use instinct and natural disposition, but when'if
these fail him'her, help is always available. 6ites such as
http>''kEeducators.about.com'od'helpfornewteachers'tp'mistakesFnew.htm or
http>''www.ohea.org'89'Templates'4ages'&*#'&*#9etail.aspxM
pageNBOTopic$elationI9N.00O-ontentNA02E, as well as many others, come up with practical
tips offered by experienced trainers and specialists.
&ver the past few decades, educators have been struggling between traditional views of
classroom discipline and the more humanistic approach and trying to effectively combine them.
They have understood that effective classroom management depends greatly on the degree of
cooperation among administration, parents, and classroom teachers. ,hen this happens, students
are more likely to see the system as fair and discipline problems will fade away.
RE+ERENCES
-oulthard, =alcolm, An 2ntroduction to Discourse Analysis, Longman, London, ./AA.
=acari, Ileana &ana, The Comic Mode in Evelyn Waughs Fiction, ed. 'oso(tei, Iai 2002
=c-arthy, =ichael, Discourse Analysis for Aanguage Teachers, -ambridge ?niversity 4ress,
-ambridge, .//..
=urray, Frank 3., P 9isposition> # 6uperfluous -onstruct in Teacher *ducation Q,D <ournal of
Teacher Gducation; Kol. 12, +o. 1, 0GGA, pp. B2.7B2A.
+atara% Lirby, 6heila Ret al.S., Feforming Teacher Gducation : &omething Old, &omething 4ew,
$#+9 -orporation, 6anta =onica, 0GGE.
,augh, *velyn, Decline and 9all, -hapman O :all, London, ./EA.
,eston, $os, P 9ealing with discipline problems Q, #ealth Gducation, +o ., Tan. .//A, pp. /@.1.
http>''www.ohea.org'89'Templates'4ages'&*#'&*#9etail.aspxM
pageNBOTopic$elationI9N.00O-ontentNA02E
http>''kEeducators.about.com'od'helpfornewteachers'tp'mistakesFnew.htm