Tangential floor in a classroom setting

This article examines floor management in two classroom sessions: a task-oriented computer lesson and a literature lesson. Recordings made in the computer lesson show the organization of floor when a task is given to students. Temporary or “incipient” side floors (Jones and Thornborrow, 2004) emerge beside the main floor. In the literature lesson, a permanent side floor is established by Turkish–German bilinguals alongside the main floor. To describe this type of floor, the term “tangential floor” is proposed. An analysis of turns in the two lessons reveals that the code-switching by the bilinguals contributes to the shaping and unfolding of floor. In the literature lesson, they use German in the tangential floor, but use more Turkish, with a few code-switching episodes, in the task-oriented computer lesson.