Classroom teaching as an intercultural communication phenomenon: a thematic analysis of a foreign teacher's rhetorical practices that accomplish learning

This study is framed within the Rhetorical Tradition of Communication Theory which theorises communication as the practical art of discourse and problems of communication as social exigencies requiring collective deliberation and judgment (Craig, 1999). The rhetorical nature of classroom teaching as an intercultural communication phenomenon can create a social exigency in communication when the culture of students is in conflict with the culture of teachers when it comes to teaching. To resolve this social exigency, teachers perform rhetorical practices in the classroom that help in the accomplishment of learning. This study attempted to answer two research questions: (1) what are the rhetorical practices of a foreign teacher? (2) how do these rhetorical practices accomplish learning? Guided by grounded theory as a methodological tradition, I observed a foreign teacher’s multicultural classroom teaching to pin down her rhetorical practices and to thematically analyse how these rhetorical practices accomplish learning. I found that her teaching consists of two rhetorical practices, namely: imperatives and appeals. In accomplishing learning, imperatives enable students to learn the basic concepts and dimensions of these concepts in a subject or class; while appeals make them reflective, critical and willing to apply their own learning in real-life situations