I ONLY LISTEN TO ONE-PERSON AT A TIME - DISSONANCE AND RESONANCE IN TALK ABOUT TALK

Close examination of a segment of classroom discourse permits definiti on of a set of linguistic devices and rhetorical structures that chara cterize the primary speaker's repertoire. As the discourse moves from dialog to monolog, and the teacher's roles and ideological assumptions come into conflict, these discourse patterns are seen to reveal the s hifting contexts of talk and social personae that the teacher must use language to reconcile. The analysis claims that, under such condition s of discourse stress, opposing contexts can be temporarily harmonized through discourse structure, even though propositional content is con tradictory.