ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a critical look at the multivocality of teacher talk, uncovering how such multivocality may constitute either an impediment or a resource as one navigates the pedagogical universe. One routine bit of teacher talk is very good as teachers give explicit positive assessments (EPAs) on learner performance. Of all the talk teachers do, elicitation is perhaps the most rampant. Elicitation rather than telling is often done to promote learner autonomy. The multiple elicitations have, in fact, derailed rather than streamlined the process of reaching a particular understanding. The challenge is to carefully craft its execution in ways that minimize any negative multivocality. By embedding conversation into the sequential structure of IRF (initiation-response-feedback) then, the multivocalic teacher talk attends to the competing concerns of both control and connection and, in particular, enables the building of rapport within the constraints of classroom discourse, an important element of effective teaching.
