Language and activity: We, you and I in instructional talk

This study is a discourse-based exploration of language use in a contemporary US university context. The focus is routine practices by which lecturers use we, you and I to accomplish interactional and information-management work in instructional talk.;Commonly known as deictic pronouns that "point out" participants in face-to-face encounters, "first" and "second-person" pronouns have been widely recognized as a problem for linguistic description. The present study places the description and analysis of we, you and I squarely within grammar, and grammar within human activity, discourse and interaction. As examined in this study, we, you and I are interactionally complex, with reference being only one among many functions that their use accomplishes. The analyses presented here characterize the multi-functionality of these markers through an activity-based account that uses conceptual frameworks of participation structuring, information management, and territory of information.;Findings from recorded and transcribed lectures in different disciplines reveal five overarching discourse functions associated with we, you and I. We orients students to activities and information that are largely familiar or accessible within the immediate context of the class ("we have three data points here"). We also links the discourse to relevant participants, events or information seen as being located outside the immediate classroom context ("if we look at the last couple million years, it contains some very important information"). The prevalent function associated with you is instructional coaching, by which students are through new instructional strategies ("you can set it up equal to your dependent variable"). I is associated differentiating and personalizing functions. The former helps instructors construct themselves as authorities or experts, and the students as learners ("I'll show you examples"). The latter shows personal involvement ("I thought 'yea right!").;The study supports a broader theoretical perspective of language as fundamentally interactive. Through very routine and everyday teaching practices (such as using we, you and I), language users organize activities and participation in these activities. Shifting back and forth among the different participant and information structures associated with activities, speakers and hearers continuously work out their interactional and informational concerns through the talk.