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Language learning as participation and socialisation
Dr Gabriela Meier
Overview
Look at 2nd part of identity
Discuss Reading
Presentation
New topic: COP and L2 socialisation
Language learning as social participation
Community of practice Language socialisation Post-structuralist approaches Socially cohesive classrooms
Perspectives of Language learning
Behavioural (habit formation) Cognitive perspectives (individual, psychological
focus) Strategies and styles (competencies,
intelligencies) Emotional (affective influences) Socio-cultural (learning as a socially mediated
activity) Socio-anthropological (social participation) Socio-political (social justice)
Community of practice
Community of practice Learning as social participation:
“Learning viewed as situated activity has as its defining characteristic a process that we call legitimate peripheral participation. By this we mean to draw attention to the point that learners inevitably participate in communities of practitioners and that the mastery of knowledge and skills requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community.”
(Lave & Wenger, 1991: 29)
Legitimate peripheral participation
Novice
expert
expertexpert
Novice
Legitimate peripheral participation
gaining access to resources (conversational and other language learning opportunities) depends on:
access to the social and verbal activities of the target language community of practice;
being accepted is central to access to language learning opportunity;
success derived partly from their own actions, partly from their respective communities’ willingness to adapt and to accept them as legitimate participants.“ [structure and agency]
(Toohey and Norton 2001 cited in Mitchell and Myles 2004)
Community of practice What is meant by participation?
Participation = “a process of being active participants in relationship to these communities (i.e. formation of identity)”
Wenger 1998:4)
Community of Practice (CoP)A social theory of learning
Apprenticeships in non-school settings Little explicit teaching Newcomers assume increasingly responsible roles
Etienne Wenger1998
Situated learning Based on socio-cultural theory Learning as a social process shaped by the
social context
Language learning is shaped by the setting, the participants, their roles, the activities undertaken, and the resources used.
Richards and Schmidt 2010
Situated learning Learning that takes place in a ‘real’ environment.
Outside the classroom Field trips Language learning in shops, kitchens, gardens Meetings with TL speakers Internships
Inside the classroom Task-based learning Problem-based learning Subject learning through another language (Immersion/CLIL)
Classroom as community of practice (Toohey 2000, 2001)
Children ask parents to recreate Masterchef recipes
Children are forcing parents to become more adventurous in the kitchen after watching cookery programmes like Masterchef and Come Dine With Me, a new study found.
Your COPs?
Think of your language learning. What communities of practice do/did you belong
to inside and outside classrooms?
Community = based on… Mutual engagement
members interact with each other
Joint enterprise common endeavour
Shared repertoire “common resources of language, styles and
routines by which they express their identities as members of the group”
(based on Wenger 1998, discussed in Barton and Tusting 2005:2)
COP research orientations
Product orientation: what do learners need to participate in a community of practice? e.g. based on needs analysis for academic disciplines: what
academic and language skills are needed to complete the task (see Ferris, 1998; Ferris & Tagg, 1996a, 1996b).
Process oriented: how are students socialised? Investigation of the situated or socially and temporally constructed process by which newcomers become socialized into a community of practice. e.g. looking at discourses at various levels of schooling (e.g.,
Belcher, 1994; Casanave, 1992, 1995; Duff, 2001, 2002; Harklau, 1999, 2000; Morita, 2000; Prior, 1998; Spack, 1997; Toohey, 2000).
Think about your COPs
See handout1. Think of a learning context, where you were
a newcomer in community of practice
2. Please describe this community of practice, using the conceptual framework provided in the handout.
Community of Practice
Central idea: situated approaches to learning Taken up across social, educational and
management sciences Used, applied, criticised, adapted and
developed by a wide range of researchers
(Barton and Tusting 2005:introduction)
Used in... Management Education Virtual world
“Theory of learning which acknowledges networks and groups which are informal and not the same as formal structures. “
“Useful as theory” and “of value in practice”
(Barton & Tusting 2005:3)
Community of practice: strength
It takes learning out of the classroom (life-long learning)
Addresses learning in the workplace and everyday life.
Helps understand difference between formal and informal education
(Barton & Tusting 2005: 3)
Development of the concept of CoP Early concepts: cognitive (product
orientation)“thinking is a practical activity which is adjusted to meet the demands of the situation” (Rogoff & Lave 1987:7)
Later concepts: socio-cultural (process orientation)“concepts of learning are shifted from
apprenticeship, through notions of situated learning to communities of practice. In particular the notion of community of practice provides a set of concepts which view learning as a form of participation in activities. “ (based on Lave and Wenger 1991, discussed in Barton and Tusting 2005)
Development of the concept of CoP
learning as social participation the individual as an active participant
[agency] in the practices of social communities
construction of his/her identity through these communities
COP as a means for organisations to become more effective.
(Wenger 2002)
Critique of CoP
No critical examination of the concept of community No distinction among different types of learning Legitimate peripheral participation is a single,
undifferentiated construct, when relationships are often hierarchical.
(Haneda 2006)
Membership of a community is not a helpful notion, since membership varies.
(Gee 2004)
Does not consider language, literacy, discourse and power Oversimplifications of management training
(Barton & Tusting 2005)
The Wenger-Trayner business 2012
www.wengertrayner.com
Classrooms as a COP Learning together: Children and adults in the
school community
“The teachers shape the curriculum around the children’s interests, using children’s curiosity, being alert to opportunities for learning as they occur”
Teamwork is emphasised and teachers, children and parents are all viewed as part of the learning community.
(Rogoff, Turkanis and Bartlett 2001:39)
Language socialisation perspective
L2 socialisation
“Those who approach a new language thus do so not simply by learning a system of new ways in which to express and interpret their native ways of acting and feeling, but also by learning the preferences and theories of a new community. “
(based on Ochs 2002, discussed in Young 2009
Language socialisation
(Duff 1995:508)
constructed
through
Domains of
knowledge,
beliefs, affect, roles,
identities, and social
representations
Language
practices and social
interaction
Language socialisation perspective
systematic account of the wider frameworks and socially recognized situations within which speech acts are performed.
predicts that there will be a structured strategic relationship between language development and ‘culturally organised situations of use’.”
(Mitchell and Myles 2004:236)
“Thick explanation” (Watson-Gegeo 2004:340)
The study of language socialisation
shows “how language forms correspond with the values, beliefs, and practices of a particular group and how novices can come to adopt them in interaction”
(Cole & Zuengler 2003:99)
Emphasis on novice and expert / oldtimer and newcomer.
Questions re language socialisationResearch: widening agenda, “often including new population demographics” (Duff 1995)
Power Socialisation into language ideologies (whose
ideology?) Who is the novice who is expert? (agency) Adoption or resistance of norms and rules? Which language(s) are legitimate in the
classroom and for what purposes?
Post-structuralist perspective “Social structures are often hidden and taken for granted,
yet can influence our assumptions about cognition, assessment of cognitive skills, and pedagogy.”
(Watson-Gegeo 2004:338-339)
All activities in which the learners regularly interact with others in the family, community, workplace, or classroom are not only by definition socially organized and embedded in cultural meaning systems, but are inherently political. [...] There is no context-free language learning, and all communicative contexts involve social, cultural, and political dimensions that affect which linguistic forms are available or taught and how they are represented.
(Watson-Gegeo 2004:340)
Newer perspectives
Anthropological perspective:“Focus on subjective experience and identity in relation to participation in practice. They engage with issues of individual and collective identity and struggles for social change, drawing on the work of Bakhtin and Bourdieu as well as Vygotsky. “(based on Chaiklin and Lave 1996, discussed in Barton and Tusting 2005:5)
Hypermodernity/supermodernity Age of technology, individuals have the power to
overcome natural limitations
Critical questions......we need to ask of ourselves and of our students:
“Why are we teaching/learning English (or an other language)?
What does this teaching/learning imply in our highly diverse but rampantly politically structured world?
What are the political implications of our teaching, learning, and researching language learning and pedagogy?
Whom does this work empower and whom does it disempower?”
(Watson-Gegeo 2004: 343)
Spaces not communities?
It is questionable as to whether people who interact in a space, or in some subgroup, really form a community?
We should think about spaces rather than communities
creating spaces wherein diverse sorts of people can interact is a leitmotif of the modern world
Gee 2004:78-79
Spaces matter
Are classrooms such spaces where diverse people can interact?
Physical or virtual?
VILLAGE LANGUAGE LEARNING AND COMMUNITY BUILDING IN SECOND LIFE (VILLAGE IS AN ACRONYM FOR VIRTUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING AND GROUP EXPERIENCE)
Second Life
Language learning in second life (an example) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdkz59vfn
3g
English learning for teens in second life (offered by the British Council)
http://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley/learn-english-second-life-for-teens
Do your students use social media?
Distributed knowledge/competencies
What knowledge do students bring to class?
How can they help/scaffold each other?
What do students know that teachers don’t know?
Can any of this be used as a resource in your classroom?
Example from my research
Research findings from Berlin study
2 factors that can lead to group cohesion
Teaching style
Bilingual education (two-way immersion)
Two-way immersion
(bilingual or dual-language education)
Classes: 50% dominant-language speakers 50% speakers of one other language Two teachers one of each language/culture The same curriculum Lessons: 50% in one language
50% in the partner language
Language choice based on local languages.
Immersion programmes (international)
One-way immersion or CLIL Immersion programmes in Canada since the 1970s Spanish Primary Schools, Spanish-English (since 1996, 200’000 ss, 3-
16) Many European countries mostly English (since 1990s) In England 47 in 2002 (CILT survey), 2012 22+? projects (BIEN)
Two-way immersion (in contexts of natural language contact)
USA: approx 400 programmes (cal.org/twi/directory/)
Europe:: Wales, Ireland, Euskadi, Catalunia, Switzerland, etc.
Israel: several Arabic-Hebrew programmes
Germany: Berlin, Hamburg, Wolfsburg, Sillenbuch, Hagen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Pirna, etc.
(German with 11 languages)England: Clapham (Wix) and Fulham (London)
Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin
Language combinations German – Russian German – French German – English German – Italian German – Spanish
Integrated from school entry to university accessState maintainedApprox. 6000 students currently in bilingual stream
German – Greek German – Turkish German – Portuguese German – Polish
Berlin – SESB locations
17 Primary
13 Secondary
+ Bilingual Kitas
Study
Research design (TWI=272, Control group=329)
Main finding greater class cohesion greater conflict resolution skills
(Meier 2010)
Confirmed by research from USA, Israel, Macedonia, Wix
Esmée Fairbairn funded research
Two-way immersion education Using language resources students bring to
school Bilingual socialisation Model of COP??
Wix: Social relationships (qualitative)
“but they seem really, really, really caring and they’re all good friends and they take good care of each other” (English teacher)
“D’ailleurs, j’ai été frappée, moi, en début d’année par la complicité qu’il y avait entre eux. ” (French teacher)
“Bilingual classes are very noisy” (several teachers)
“they help each other” (several teachers)
“tutorat naturel qui s’organise entre eux” (French teacher)
Based on TWI literature and anecdotal evidence
Distributed knowledge: changing roles of novices and experts Sensitive to peers’ needs: anticipate their peers’ learning
needs, and constantly check that everyone has understood. Reciprocal assistance: The children are willing to help others,
when they need help, and are willing to seek and accept help in other classes.
Scaffolding strategies: The children seem to use a range of strategies to support their peers in their learning (translations, explanations, etc.)
Not-knowing is normalised: the children learn some of the content in a second language, thus it is clear that they do not know and that they need to ask.
Children take on responsibility: Children seem to take on important support roles in two-way immersion projects. Anecdotal evidence shows, that children want to go to school because their peers need them.
Interactional learning
Data collection in Wix Nov/Dec. 2012
How would you do this?
COP activity: mapping knowledge
“Dialogue among learners can be as effective as instructional conversations between teachers and learners. Working collaboratively, people are able to co-construct distributed expertise as a feature of the group, and individual members are then able to exploit this expertise as an occasion for learning to happen. (...) Learners are capable of scaffolding each other through the use of strategies that parallel those relied upon by experts”.
(Lantolf 2002:106)
Summary and conclusion
What did we talk about ? COP Socialisation Socially cohesive groups
What were interesting/important points for you?
Reading for next week Meier and Daniel (2011) ‘Just not being able to make
friends’… (See handout)
Advance warning: Session of 4th December 2012 Bring poster (A4/A3) illustrating your idea for an essay
(concept map,, mind map or other format)
Selected literature on language COPs and L2 socialisation etc.Barton, David & Tusting, Karin (2005) Beyond Communities of Practice:
Language, power, and social context. Cambridge: COPBreen, Michael (2001) Learner Contributions to Language Learning: New
Directions in Research. LongmanDuff, P. (2007) Second language socialization as sociocultural theory: Insights
and issues. Language Teaching, Oct 01, 2007; Vol. 40, No. 4, p. 309-319 Gee, James Paul (2004) Situated Language and Learning: A critique of
traditional schooling. New York and London: Routledge.Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate
Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Meier, G. and Daniels, H. (2011) Just not being able to make friends’: Social
interaction during the year abroad in modern foreign language degrees. Research Papers in Education, 1-27.
Wenger, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, Etienne, and William M. Snyder. 2000. Communities of practice: the organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review 78 (1):139-145.
Young, Richard F. (2009) Discursive Practice in Language Learning and Teaching. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
