“I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew I was American”: A critical discourse analysis of a dialogic speech event

Unpacking a dialogic speech event that took place in an ESOL teacher education class, this article explores an instance of struggle over ascribed, commonsense meanings that include some U.S. Americans and exclude others. The incident—what Fairclough (1992) has called a “moment of crisis”—turned out to be a powerful, transformative experience in which the notion of what it means to “be American” was problematized, deconstructed, and reconstructed to add diverse ethnicities to the White majority. Dialogic instances such as the one showcased confirm the potential of crucial questions, polarizing issues, and moments of conflict for pushing the boundaries of dialogue among participants in the classroom. By providing a step-by-step critical discourse analysis of the structure of a dialogic speech event, this article seeks to offer a contribution that illustrates, examines, and models dialogic practices associated with preparing ESOL pre-service teachers.

► The study explores an instance of struggle over commonsense meanings that include some U.S. Americans and exclude others.
► An unexpected question by one student evolved into a confrontation that triggered an epiphanic moment for another student.
► What it means to “be American” was problematized and reconstructed to add diverse ethnicities to the White majority.
► This instance of dialogue mediated a learning experience for the class.
► The study confirms the potential of crucial questions and moments of conflict in dialogic ESOL teacher education.