Article

Second/Foreign Language Learning as a Social Accomplishment: Elaborations on a Reconceptualized SLA

Authors:
  • University of Southern Denmark, Kolding
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

In this article, we begin by delineating the background to and motivations behind Firth and Wagner (1997), wherein we called for a reconceptualization of second language acquisition (SLA) research. We then outline and comment upon some of our critics' reactions to the article. Next we review and discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological impact the article has had on the SLA field. Thereafter, we re-engage and develop some of the themes raised but left undeveloped in the 1997 article. These themes cluster around the notions of and interrelationships between language use, language learning, and language acquisition. Although we devote space to forwarding the position that the dichotomy of language use and acquisition cannot defensibly be maintained (and in this we take up a contrary position to that held in mainstream SLA), our treatment of the issues is essentially methodological. We focus on describing a variety of aspects of learning-inaction , captured in transcripts of recordings of naturally occurring foreign, second, or other language interactions. Through transcript analyses, we explore the possibilities of describing learning-inaction devoid of cognitivistic notions of language and learning. In so doing, we advance moves to formulate and establish a reconceptualized SLA.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... As learning behaviors are situated, so are the resulting competencies: They are co-constructed, adaptive, flexible, and sensitive to the contingencies of use. These conceptions, which resonate with usage-based approaches to SLA (see below), have been captured in CA-SLA research by the notions of learning-in-action (Firth & Wagner, 2007) and competence-in-action (Pekarek Doehler, 2006). They can be interpreted as offering a renewed grasp on a core issue of traditional SLA, namely variability: What classically has been termed the learner's "interlanguage" is seen as eminently sensitive-that is, adaptive-to the contingencies of communicative practice. ...
... This conception clearly broadens the view of the object of learning beyond the details of the linguistic system, and addresses issues of L2 interactional competence. It also respecifies the notion of language as a dynamic, adaptive resource for action (Firth & Wagner, 2007;Eskildsen, 2011; that is complexly intertwined with embodied resources, such as gesture, gaze, or posture (Eskildsen & Wagner, 2015). This shifts the researcher's focus away from concerns with the correctness of linguistic forms toward an interest in how patterns of language use serve to accomplish social interactions and how they emerge from these interactions. ...
... Studies of this type provide evidence for the learning of linguistic patterns as interactionally occasioned and oriented to as such by participants. They demonstrate, from an emic perspective, how participants themselves exhibit orientation toward (and ongoing assessment of) each other's language expertise or cognitive states (Kasper, 2009;Mori & Hasegawa, 2009;Kääntä, 2014), and toward learning opportunities that they contribute to construct (Mori, 2004;Firth & Wagner, 2007;Fasel-Lauzon & Pekarek Doehler, 2013). Such evidence opens an interesting window onto the process of learning, helping us to understand what learning is for the learner and his or her coparticipants. ...
Chapter
This entry presents the conversation analytic approach to the study of second language acquisition (CA‐SLA). It briefly outlines the historical development of the field and its reconceptualization of key concepts: Learning is viewed as a socially situated practice that becomes observable through the micro‐details of social conduct; competence is defined as a locally contingent, ever adaptive ability to use semiotic resources in social interaction at the primary site of human linguistic (and more generally social and mental) functioning; language is seen as part of a complex ensemble of multimodal resources used for meaning making in interaction; and the very object of L2 learning is cast in terms of “methods” (i.e., systematic procedures), for accomplishing second language talk‐in‐interaction. The entry then provides an overview of three key lines of CA‐SLA investigation into L2 learning: (a) microgenetic studies that investigate the local‐interactional emergence of patterns of language use; (b) longitudinal work that analyzes the expansion, over time, of such patterns into new environments of use and their increased working as interaction‐organizational devices (i.e., as part of an L2 grammar‐for‐interaction); (c) longitudinal investigations of the development of L2 interactional competence that document how, over time, L2 speakers change their practices for accomplishing precise actions, such as initiating repair, offering a disagreement, or opening a storytelling. The entry concludes by identifying current developments that open avenues for future research.
... This article contributes to the existing body of literature on workplace interactions (See Drew and Heritage, 1992) and multilingual workplace studies (Angouri, 2014;Hazel and Svennevig, 2018), especially in Nordic countries (e.g., Sundberg, 2004;Svennevig, 2012;Jansson, 2014;Kurhila et al., 2021;Nissi et al., 2021). The examples presented here show how topicalization of a peer's linguistic background and knowledge may lead not only to informal learning through assessing language competence (see e.g., Firth and Wagner, 2007;Firth, 2009), but also to adjusting the participation framework and the roles of the participants. ...
... Moreover, the analysis provides insights into the continuous cycle of knowledge sharing and the underlying epistemic constellations within interactions (Koole, 2012), and how "language use and language learning are not separable, and that learning happens in interaction" (Kurhila and Kotilainen, 2020: 647), even in backstage talks. As the excerpt exemplifies it, learning occurs subtly as participants offer, adopt, and adapt resources according to the interaction's needs (Firth and Wagner, 2007). In the example, multilingualism is highlighted not as a static attribute but as a dynamic element influencing the transformation of the participation framework and contextually-situated identities (Pavlenko and Blackledge, 2004;Li, 2011). ...
Article
Full-text available
This study investigates workplace interactions where peer's linguistic backgrounds are top-icalized. Analyzing video recordings of backstage interactions (Goffman, 1959), the research highlights different interactional consequences of topicalizing peers' native languages and how it results in transformations in participation frameworks and thereby in the situated identities of participants. To address the main aim, the study uses an ethnomethodological conversation analytic approach to examine how participants respond to language-related inquiries, such as "How do you say X in your language?", and how these inquiries serve as membership inference-rich devices. The findings reveal that topicalizing a peer's language (other than the main medium in the group) can trigger various activity types, including jocular interactions and informal learning. Moreover, the interaction may lead to the display of possible vulnerability, as unfolding talk can position individuals as marginal within the group and thus occasion stance-taking toward that positioning with resistance.
... Take for example the "input" and "output" hypothesis popularly used to explain the "acquisition" process. In this perspective, communication and interaction are conceived as the computer-like, neutral process of exchange or transmission of information from one mind to another (Firth and Wagner 1997), rendering language learning as an individual accomplishment that has been disembodied from community Firth and Wagner 2007;Henner and Robinson 2023). The consequences of adopting such theories are to avoid human complexity, social problems that include linguistic discrimination, racism, and linguistic variability altogether. ...
... As a result, language learning is conceived as a constant and universal unidirectional process. Resultantly, this epistemological footing of language learning has the tendency to find problem sources, rather than achievements and interactional success in dynamic and innovative language practices (Firth and Wagner 2007). ...
Chapter
This book showcases how teacher educators from diverse backgrounds, contexts, and realities approach English language teacher education with a critical stance. Organized into nine parts that explore different facets of English Language Teaching, each section opens with theoretical considerations chapters and features 24 practical application chapters. Written by renowned scholars including Graham Hall, Lili Cavalheiro, and Mario López Gopar, among others, the theoretical considerations chapters offer concise insights into current issues and controversies in the field, point out opportunities for criticality, and discuss implications for teacher education. Written by critically-oriented teacher educators/researchers from various parts of the world including Brazil, Germany, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and the USA, among others, the practical application chapters exhibit various ways to incorporate critical approaches in reshaping current teacher education practices (ranging from critical and queer pedagogy to translanguaging to multilingualism) along with a critical reflection of the potentials and the challenges involved in their application.
... The change here can be in different social actions contingent upon the interactional dynamics of conversations (e.g., Balaman, 2018;Deppermann, 2018;Nguyen, 2011a;Pekarek Doehler & Pochon-Berger, 2015) or the linguistic resources the interactants deploy in the talk-in-interaction (e.g., Pekarek Doehler & Balaman, 2021;Hauser, 2013;Eskildsen, 2015;Skogmyr Marian, 2023). These studies are remnants of change in different aspects, displaying development of the participants in different areas, hence paving the way for documenting learning as a social practice (i.e., learning-in-action, Firth & Wagner, 2007). ...
Article
Full-text available
Virtual exchange (VE) projects create environments providing VE participants with L2 development opportunities. This study examines the affordances of VEs with a particular emphasis on how participants find opportunities for developing their interactional competences in video-mediated environments. The data comes from a VE Project organized among three universities based in Germany, Türkiye and Sweden. During the project timeline, the participants worked in teams through weekly meetings. The data comprises screen-recordings of video-mediated team exchange meetings and written final reflection papers. The screen-recorded data was analyzed via longitudinal Conversation Analysis (CA), while the reflection papers were examined to identify potential developmental phenomena. That is, one student claiming to have improved her interactional competence in the final reflection paper was identified as the focal participant. Retrospective tracking of this student’s entire video-mediated interactional history with her team-members during the VE project (8 hours across 3 months) revealed a diversification of her participatory actions over time manifested through changes in her involvement (i.e., becoming increasingly active) in the team interaction. Initially, she participated minimally with embodied or short responses solicited by the others, and remained mostly silent. However, in subsequent team exchanges, she not only displayed unsolicited contributions by elaborating and topic-shifting but also took an active role in the VE team meetings by opening tasks/conversations, sharing her stance towards various task-related proposals, and using mitigated disagreement practices for problem-solving about the collaborative team-product. Using longitudinal CA, this study brings evidence for a VE participant’s interactional competence development in terms of participatory actions during turn-entry moments in video-mediated interaction, through which she became a more active participant in the teamwork. By providing instances to document this change in her participatory actions, the study discusses to what extent VE settings can contribute to a participant’s L2 interactional competence.
... Interactional competence (the ability to participate as social members, using the L2) is thus emphasized over abstract grammar knowledge as the primary goal of language learning and teaching. Furthermore, rather than viewing language learning as an individual endeavor, social approaches to SLA emphasize social cognition, or what learners do and achieve together within specific "learning-in-interaction" processes (Firth & Wagner, 2007). In other words, learners are seen as social actors who have agency to shape their learning process and outcomes. ...
... Historically, language acquisition was viewed through the lens of individual learners aiming to match the proficiency of native speakers. This aligns with the traditional realm of second language acquisition, though it has faced critiques (Firth and Wagner 2007). I agree with Dudley's arguments that nowadays, however, language learning is considered a broader social phenomenon that involves the spread and impact of the language within a society. ...
Article
Full-text available
In this polylog to the special issue on The rise of Chinese language education policies in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf: New players, discourses and linguistic markets, three researchers with different personal and professional connections to the three languages 'at play' in the region-English, Chinese, and Arabic-offer their assessments of both the current and future status of Chinese in the region. Using language and political economy as their methodological compass, they grapple with three key questions: (i) How Chinese as a third language is conceived and enacted?, (ii) How may the Chinese language shift power relations among languages in the Gulf?, and (iii) Would the Chinese language carry similar ideological, colonial and neoliberal undercurrents that are being voiced in critical applied linguistics about English? As a polyphonous text, disagreements among the contributors are allowed to stand and there is not an attempt to reach consensus. Nonetheless, they unanimously argue that moves towards introducing Chinese as a third language in the Arabian Gulf reveal much about the political, economic, and social drivers of change in the region.
... Research using Conversation Analysis (henceforth, CA) demonstrates that language learning occurs in action, i.e. through use. In such a reconceptualization [1,2] of language learning, recipients are viewed as incipient speakers who continuously monitor an ongoing turn and not as passive listeners. Recipients, basically not contributing something new in an ongoing sequence, take part in the process of sustaining intersubjectivity (cf. ...
Article
Full-text available
Establishing recipiency, an indispensable ingredient and manifestation of sustaining intersubjectivity, constitutes the continuous monitoring of an ongoing turn in an interaction. The present study intended to describe how interactants attending a freshman common course in an Ethiopian university elicit and display recipiency in instances of Divergent L2 contexts exhibiting DIUs. Naturally occurring video-recorded classroom interactions of the purposively selected interactants have been analyzed in light of the Conversation Analytic framework to show how interactants elicit and display recipiency. By deploying reactive tokens, incipient speakers negotiate their rights to shape and reshape trajectories of an ongoing thereby displaying recipiency. This contributes to a better understanding of how interactures, in this case the establishment of intersubjectivity and L2 contexts, interplay and unfold in moments of DIUs. Also, viewing interactants as incipient speakers, and thereby articulating turns in view of recipients is a condition for sustaining intersubjectivity through active engagement. This requires upholding unwavering belief about recipients’ stake in an interactional exchange. Practically, being attentive to recipients' states in the different trajectories of interactional development, especially, in moments of divergent L2 contexts that exhibit DIUs, would be illuminating. This is because the use of resources to elicit and display recipiency and thereby consider incipient speakers' levels of recipiency, on the part of floor-holding speaker, would enhance possibilities for intersubjectivity.
... Within the social perspective, language learning is conceptualized as a social process (Firth & Wagner, 2007) through which an individual participates in a new social environment (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000). This is a process of struggle in which an individual's agency, sociocultural, and contextual factors are interwoven. ...
Article
Full-text available
This study used the Vygotskian concept of perezhivanie, an emotionally lived experience, to examine the identities of two Turkish language learners. Learner identity has been researched from social and psychological perspectives; however, the role of emotion and its relationship with cognition has not been sufficiently addressed. As a unit of analysis, Perezhivanie offers a holistic approach to examining learners' identities by considering their emotional and cognitive processes in their learning environments. This study reports on a qualitative case study. Data were obtained from Dodo and Uraz's observations while taking an elective course in Global English and Culture, their multiple reflections written throughout the course, and their interviews. The data analysis revealed ontological instances of perezhivaniya (plural) that stemmed from the two participants' emotionally charged, memorable moments. It revealed how these perezhivaniya formed and transformed their identities throughout their language‐learning experience. These results indicate the importance of assisting language learners by introducing them to the new World of Englishes , thus providing new theoretical frameworks that create a fertile environment for identity transformation.
... The personal experiences of Japanese L2 English users as shared through their self-perceived interpretations were considered by the researcher to potentially be unique and rich sources of information about the relationship between language and identity in L2 usage (learning) and socialization (Norton & Toohey, 2011). The widely held perception that L2 acquisition-based studies have focused on the cognitive nature of L2 acquisition has been criticized by Firth and Wagner (2007), who suggested that this trend has marginalized the social and cultural dimensions they recognize as inherent to every instance of L2 acquisition. For example, L2 user engagement in Study Abroad Experiences (SAEs) involves traveling to, and spending some time in a target-language country during which time the L2 user (learner) may also receive Formal Instruction (FI) in the first language (L1). ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This qualitative study explored influences that helped to shape Japanese L2 (Second language) English users' identity development. 81 Japanese undergraduates shared self-perceptions of their L2 English identity development from personal experiences, both domestically (in Japan) and internationally. The primary focus of this study was an exploration of enabling influences on Japanese L2 English identity development. A secondary focus was an exploration of constraining influences on Japanese L2 English user identity development. Findings from this study suggested that Japanese L2 English user identity development is influenced by the individual's awareness of what identity roles are accessible and available for negotiation, and what kind of learning occurs. Major influences that emerged through thematic analysis of the data indicated that L2 English classroom-based experiences in Japan, engagement in study abroad and volunteer abroad programs, and overseas travel and living abroad with family were the most commonly referred to enablers of Japanese L2 English user identity development. Additionally, inadequate English language skills, insufficient exposure to English in daily life, and hesitancy (and avoidance) to communicate in English were the three most commonly referred to constraints of Japanese L2 English user identity development. Keywords: English language user, identity development, learner perceptions, Japan, EIL, L2 18 1. Introduction Japanese second language (L2) learner identity, in the context of English language as a second language, has been studied from a socio-psychological perspective (see Goharimehr, 2017; Takahashi, 2013; Suzuki, 2017) in relation to Dörnyei's (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System. However, these studies and their utilization of this model have concentrated on L2 English learner self-perceptions of their ideal L2 self and all of the attributes that a person would ideally like to possess. The current study differed in two ways from these studies of Japanese L2 English learner identity. Firstly, the current study explored identity development of participants whom the researcher viewed as L2 English users (rather than a traditional view of them as learners). The concept of them being users of English can be understood as positioning these individuals as belonging to the wider community of English speaking people around the world. As a result of the experience that participants had in learning and using English, the researcher identified and referred to them as L2 English users (see section 3 for further information about the participants). Secondly, these Japanese L2 English users' experiences were explored in relation to the interpretations of the factors that enabled and constrained the development of their L2 English language user development through self-perceived interpretations of their personal experiences. This research was intended to promote awareness among English language teaching professionals in Japan, and beyond, about how Japanese learners/users of English view what has significantly shaped the development of their language user (learner) identity, as well those factors that have constrained the development of their L2 English user identity.
... Notably, the millennium shift brought two different research-based turns to the fore that have had a prominent impact on how languages and language learning in school are perceived today. The first turn, the social turn, changed teaching perspectives from individual-centered cognitive learning processes toward language learning as a social phenomenon and practice (see, e.g., Firth & Wagner, 1997, 2007. The second turn, the multilingual turn, builds on multi-competence (Cook, 2016) and a multilingual mind as a starting point and normalcy where a monolingual norm has long been dominating (May, 2014(May, , 2019. ...
... Amin, 1997). In the following stage, aligned with the perception of seeing language learning as a social accomplishment (Firth & Wagner, 2007), the focus of LTI research shifted to sociocultural identities, or rather, how contextual factors and teaching practices influence LTI formation (e.g. Vélez-Rendón, 2010). ...
Article
Full-text available
This narrative inquiry investigates an English as a Foreign Language teacher's storied experience of 30‐year extensive reading (ER) implementation, with the aim of exploring the formation of language teacher identity (LTI) of this individual teacher. Two narrative interviews were conducted, respectively focusing on the holistic story and detailed accounts of some critical incidents and significant others. Two researchers played different roles: one insider, conducting, transcribing, translating, and analysing interviews; one outsider, analysing the data with a relatively neutral perspective. Data analysis adopted an ecological approach and a three‐level framework (societal, interpersonal, and intrapersonal levels). Findings highlight the complex links between discursive features, personal experience, teacher emotions, and power differentials in shaping the dynamic and multi‐faceted nature of LTIs. Meanwhile, the considerable evolution of the teacher's ER implementation validates the importance of teacher training, especially opportunities for teachers to gain experiential knowledge which further contributes to teacher identity development.
... Lately, more interest is paid to sociocultural factors, such as the opportunity to use the new language in working life. Language learning takes place through interaction (Firth & Wagner, 1997, 2007, and, consequently, motivation to learn a new language is considered not only an individual phenomenon but also a social process that is created in interaction with others. Drawing on Bourdieu, Darvin and Norton (2017) argue that learners invest in an L2 because they hope that it provides a wider range of material and symbolic resources that will increase their social power. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article presents a qualitative, empirical study of two educational programmes for immigrants that integrate language instruction and vocational training. In the context of migration, social inclusion is often conceptualised as access to social capital. Proficiency in the national language is considered key for employment and fast integration into working life has become a primary goal in Swedish migration policies. This article examines the two programmes from the perspective of inclusion into an (imagined) future professional community of practice (CoP), focusing specifically on the participants’ possibilities to invest in a professional linguistic repertoire. The article is dedicated to empirical analyses and positive factors, recognising the need for research. Data consists of interviews with students and teachers, observations, and video recordings of course activities. Organisational aspects of the courses, such as the teachers’ backgrounds and the courses’ proximity to future CoPs, as well as relational aspects of the learning environments, are considered essential for the participants’ inclusion in a future professional CoP. Analyses of the programmes’ content demonstrate that participants are assumed to lack context‐specific, vocational knowledge, including professionally related vocabulary. The article contributes to knowledge on how inclusion can be managed in practice in educational settings for adult immigrants and promotes an understanding of how vocationally adapted courses can assist immigrants in becoming members of a future professional CoP.
... Intertwined with the former study, this research also Journal on English as a Foreign Language, 13(2), 499-523 p-ISSN 2088-1657; e-ISSN 2502-6615 516 performed a similar yield, such as socialization, in which toddlers can illuminate their advancement in SLA. The interrelationship between language use, language learning, and language gain has existed, and all are associated with one another (Firth & Wagner 2007). This ensures the participants' allegation in this study that language employment in the community has always been under language acquisition. ...
Article
Full-text available
Discussing second language acquisition (SLA) from the perspective of one same-nationality family has been massively conducted. However, the recent study regarding SLA in toddlers in mixed-marriage families, especially with Indonesian mothers, has not been previously observed. Directed to the study demonstrated by Li (2007), this present study aimed to examine the three essential marks of family roles on their children's acquisition, such as the parent's literacy accomplishment, the daily occupation choice and opportunity, and adaptation as well as integration into the local country. Two families with Sudan-Indonesia and America-Indonesia backgrounds participated as research subjects. The narrative inquiry method through interviews (see Duff, 2019) was employed to gain the data. Then, the data were analyzed by using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six thematic analysis stages. The results revealed that the parental academic records of accomplishment, the family's occupation, and the socialization to the domestic environment positively affected family language policy (FLP), shaping the stairs of children's SLA. Moreover, this study may contribute to Indonesian families, school stakeholders, and EFL teachers in teaching the foreign language to their children and EFL students in gaining new languages.
... Furthermore, the globalized tendencies of the postmodern era with highly volatile and emergent spaces have promoted the consolidation of cross-national and intercultural communication (Firth & Wagner, 2007;Fernández, 2017;Álvarez Valencia, 2016). In this manner, a language teaching view solely centered on the communicative dimension faces difficulty in coping with the needs of the current international communicative milieu, because it neglects a few of the key elements of intercultural communication. ...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: This study aims to analyze the reflections of a group of ninth graders from a Colombian high school about their culture during the development of an intercultural-based classroom project. Method: This qualitative action research study was grounded in an intercultural approach for language teaching. The study used a questionnaire and the written production of students to collect data which were analyzed using thematic and frequency analyses. Results: The findings suggested that the inclusion of cultural topics motivated the students and enhanced their awareness of the value of their culture and the impact of racism and discrimination within their sociocultural context. Similarly, a few elements of culturally relevant pedagogies, such as factual knowledge about culture, cultural competence, and critical consciousness, emerged from the voices of the students. Discussion and conclusions: Addressing the local manifestations of culture in English as a Foreign Language classrooms open the path for discussions on social issues and recognize the relevance of one’s cultural landscape. Nevertheless, the systematic integration of culture in language teaching at the national level is a task that remains to be achieved.
... Sociolinguists like Rampton (1995), Wagner (1997) and Lantolf (2000Lantolf ( , 2006 have shown that language is not just a means of communication, but it is a symbol of cultural identity and means of socialization. Looking at the factors that influence language acquisition in relation to social influences, Pavlenko (2006) and Lamarre (2013) discuss the ways in which globalization, diversity and the commodification of language affect the speakers of multilingual languages as well as their practices and identity. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
The study seeks to investigate the Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) program in relation to the teaching and learning of isiXhosa in Grade two classes. It is set to focus on the guidelines for implementation of IIAL, in schools that did not implement African languages in the Foundation Phase before. The complexity of multilingualism in South Africa where African languages are given a lower status than English and Afrikaans. Furthermore, the teaching of African languages as additional languages assumes a particular substance in my study. The purpose of my study then is to find out the teaching strategies that are being used by the isiXhosa teachers in implementing IIAL to multilingual learners with different linguistic backgrounds, and the type of support given to teachers by the Department of Basic Education
... Li and Zhu [55] claim that whether collaboration is fruitful or not depends on the way of collaboration such as the degree of control over the task, and the level of engagement among learners. If learners in a group are regarded as an intrinsically connected unity rather than independent entities [56], their engagement can be reinforced by the joint construction of meaning [57], joint attention [58], joint mediation [59], and metalinguistic processing of active participation [60]. They can be highly engaged because a collaborative activity is a synergetic process that can promote the emergence of zones of proximal development among learners [58]. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
This study investigates how to engage students in a blended academic writing course. We did classroom observation and analyzed the chatroom and video recordings of the class on ZOOM, the learning materials and procedure on CNMOOC, and the collaborative writing tasks submitted on CANVAS. We also analyzed data from WeChat and the interview. The results show that teacher-student, student-content and student-student interactions can all influence students’ engagement. Teacher-student interaction in the form of questions and answers, presentations and comments, knowledge exploration using note-pen, and teacher’s written and oral feedback has effect on students’ engagement in ZOOM. Teacher-content interaction via well-designed videos, exercises and in-class activities influences their engagement on CNMOOC. Student-student interaction for completing project-based writing tasks and peer review in collaborative writing has an impact on students’ engagement after class. The study will have pedagogical implications for how to promote student engagement in an online blended learning context.
... The authors also called for the greater study of noninstructional settings and of everyday occurrences (see Harding et al.,Chapter 11, this volume, for consideration of language abilities in domains such as healthcare). The follow-up article (Firth & Wagner, 2007) furthered the discussion, continuing to advocate for the agency of the L2 language user, referring to various aspects of learning-in-action in transcripts of language use through ethnomethodological conversation analysis (for more on ethnography and conversation analysis, see Starr, Chapter 5, and Nguyen, Chapter 8, this volume). Finally, the authors called on the field to focus attention on uniting the social and the cognitive dimensions of language learning. ...
Chapter
The present chapter provides a historical overview of the notion of communicative competence, including a detailed account of early publications in the field of second language acquisition that argued for the importance of the construct and debated what it should include. The chapter explains important constructs in the study of communicative competence, including the sub-competences of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. We then shift to more recent discussions of communicative competence. We examine revisions to early models of communicative competence and review recent work that assesses to what extent the field has progressed in its consideration of communicative competence and in what areas the field is still lacking. Finally, we describe the contents of the volume, organized around sub-sections of theory, method, and applications, and we summarize the main content of the component chapters within each sub-section.
... It is a modern trend in foreign language learning and second language acquisition that focuses on learners' participation in a joint activity, effectively replacing the individual mode of learning, which was used prior to this (Firth & Wagner, 2007). Furthermore, technology-supported collaborative learning, in addition to collaborative and cooperative learning, tend to be, for the most part, constructivist, originating from a sociocultural perspective (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). ...
Article
Full-text available
This study comprehensively reviews the literature associated with the implementation of wikis in an educational context, primarily concerning learning and teaching languages. The study proceeds by presenting wikis and their main theoretical background in a brief overview. After that, a discussion of the most recent empirical studies is presented, followed by an exploration of the merits and the limitations of using wikis in an educational setting. The paper concludes that wikis have a positive impact when it comes to improving learners’ knowledge of various aspects of language, enhancing their autonomy, learning perceptions, and motivation to learn. As a beneficial digital tool, wikis can effectively improve students’ language learning, which is achieved via critical thinking, negotiation of meaning, and collaborative learning, to name a few aspects. Having said this, limitations exist, all of which should be taken seriously by both administrators and teachers alike to maximise wikis’ benefits. Yet, it is increasingly evident that, in this context, wikis’ positives far outweigh their minuses. A number of practical recommendations are offered at the end of this paper to guide teachers, educators, and researchers.
... The researchers also assigned students into groups, where more proficient learners serve as the leaders or peer mentors to help learners with low proficiency be more emotionally and linguistically prepared for classroom discussions, group work, and comprehension-based activities. Such collaborative pedagogy echoes earlier studies concerning the sociocultural view of second language acquisition, in which acquisition best occurs when students are engaged in collaboration with either their peers or instructors (Firth & Wagner, 2007;Lantolf, 2011;Vygotsky, 1986). From the cognitive aspects of second language acquisition, the possible explanation of such positive effects on students' L2 proficiency is that in this experiential cultural learning, the researchers constantly direct students' attention to how linguistic knowledge (i.e., grammar, vocabulary, and syntax) operationalizes in real-world communication settings (real-world intercultural materials) but to using English as a means of communication to process new knowledge that is represented in their target language. ...
Article
Full-text available
Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been widely acknowledged as a core element of today’s foreign language education. However, even though the importance of intercultural language teaching is commonly recognized among adult learners and at the post-secondary level, teachers of adolescent English learners often find it hard to effectively incorporate culture into English learning because of the lack of an instructional model facilitating their students’ intercultural development and English learning experiences. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether integrating intercultural learning into an online EFL curriculum can elevate teenage EFL students’ L2 motivation, intercultural communicative competence, and English proficiency. The researchers used a quasi-experimental design by randomly selecting two eighth-grade classes in a secondary school in northern Thailand, with one class designated as the experimental group (N = 31) and the other as the control group (N = 28). The effects of this teaching experiment were then examined using both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings demonstrated that the students in the experimental group showed a greater improvement compared with those of the students in the control group after an 8-week, interculturally embedded English curriculum. The results suggested that ICC is conducive to adolescent EFL students’ intercultural development as well as their English learning motivation and outcome. The applications of ICC-based EFL instruction in similar contexts are discussed.
... It is a modern trend in foreign language learning and second language acquisition that focuses on learners' participation in a joint activity, effectively replacing the individual mode of learning, which was used prior to this (Firth & Wagner, 2007). Furthermore, technology-supported collaborative learning, in addition to collaborative and cooperative learning, tend to be, for the most part, constructivist, originating from a sociocultural perspective (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). ...
Article
Full-text available
This study comprehensively reviews the literature associated with the implementation of wikis in an educational context, primarily concerning learning and teaching languages. The study proceeds by presenting wikis and their main theoretical background in a brief overview. After that, a discussion of the most recent empirical studies is presented, followed by an exploration of the merits and the limitations of using wikis in an educational setting. The paper concludes that wikis have a positive impact when it comes to improving learners' knowledge of various aspects of language, enhancing their autonomy, learning perceptions, and motivation to learn. As a beneficial digital tool, wikis can effectively improve students' language learning, which is achieved via critical thinking, negotiation of meaning, and collaborative learning, to name a few aspects. Having said this, limitations exist, all of which should be taken seriously by both administrators and teachers alike to maximise wikis' benefits. Yet, it is increasingly evident that, in this context, wikis' positives far outweigh their minuses. A number of practical recommendations are offered at the end of this paper to guide teachers, educators, and researchers.
Article
Multilingual students learning English face changes in developing intercultural communicative competence outside the classroom. This Classroom Exploration, informed by frameworks of intercultural communicative competence, willingness to communicate, and cultural adaptation, explores the use of reflection comics in a service‐learning course for first‐year international university students. Students created comics depicting key moments during their volunteer work. Analysis of a comic reveals how the medium of a comic with images, speech bubbles, and thought bubbles focuses a student's attention on verbal and nonverbal communication with other participants within a specific social context.
Article
Full-text available
The intelligibility principle for second language (L2) pronunciation challenges the nativeness principle that suggests that L2 speakers’ goal should be nativelike pronunciation. However, in this corpus-supported review of studies based on the intelligibility principle, we show that the understanding of the principle is still underpinned by what we term ideologies of nativeness, which favor speakers of privileged first language (L1) varieties and undermine other L1 and L2 World Englishes speakers. We focus on discourses surrounding the two most prominent keywords: errors, frequently used to describe proficient L2 speech and blame it for compromised intelligibility, and comprehensibility, often uncritically used to gauge listeners’ understanding although it measures subjective perception and can be closely associated with nativeness. Such discourses can obscure a more complete understanding of communication that acknowledges variation in L1 speech and the mutual nature of communication, as well as contribute toward negative perceptions of L2 speakers. Based on our review, we suggest that teachers avoid prescribed pronunciation models, instead helping learners develop their pronunciation based on a broad perceptual repertoire. We further recommend that researchers focus on how communication difficulties are successfully repaired without relying on prescribed pronunciation norms, recognizing mutual responsibility and accountability for intelligibility by all interlocutors.
Chapter
Full-text available
This entry presents on the key aspects of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in different stages of development. It argues the importance of embracing multilingual perspectives when exploring ELF in social communication and education. In particular, ELF should be positioned within the multilingual paradigm as a multilingua franca (EMF) to recognize the diversity and complexity of ELF use and practice. The entry also proposes the EMF-translanguaging symbiosis as both education and social discourses to promote inclusive education for a decolonizing pedagogy.
Book
What is it about social interaction at the workplace that spurs interactional competence development? This book explores the answers to this question by analyzing the development of interactional competence by two Vietnamese hotel staff members, one novice and one experienced, as they interact with international guests in English in Vietnam. Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) in a longitudinal design, Nguyen and Malabarba trace the learners’ observable changes in interactional practices in guest-escorting walks over time. In doing so, they uncover the interaction-endogenous impetuses that may have led to these changes and address three fundamental questions in second language acquisition research: what is learned, how it is learned, and why it is learned. In seven chapters, the book offers an illuminating discussion of how competence has been conceptualized in EMCA and a rich analysis of how individuals’ changes in interactional conduct take place locally and longitudinally. With an in-depth discussion of theoretical issues as well as a fine-grained empirical analysis, this book appeals to researchers, students, and practitioners interested in social perspectives on second language learning, longitudinal EMCA, the development of interactional competence at the workplace, and guest-host interaction in hospitality.
Article
One key tenet of Global Englishes for Language Teaching (GELT) is that the native English speaker should no longer serve as the role model for second language (L2) English users. Such a view does not discount that some degree of linguistic knowledge is necessary for successful global communication. However, GELT scholarship has remained relatively silent on the process and product of L2 acquisition. In this paper, we propose integrating L2 acquisition theory into GELT pedagogical practices without relying on theoretical perspectives steeped in some form of native speakerism. At the heart of our discussion is the concept of linguistic knowledge–implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious)–emphasizing the role of explicit learning processes in GELT classrooms rather than adhering solely to the idealistic goal of implicit competence. Because L2 learners need to reflect on linguistic knowledge (repertoire) and strategies for effective global communication, we propose that their learning should aim to develop skill sets of using explicit and implicit knowledge dynamically and efficiently in varied communicative contexts. We argue that skill acquisition theory offers a useful framework for GELT, as it can account for the development of automatized explicit knowledge alongside implicit knowledge, aligning with GELT objectives of fostering multicompetent English users. We illustrate how this perspective can inform classroom activities such as shadowing and task repetition. These activities not only promote deliberate, explicit learning processes but also integrate seamlessly with awareness–raising activities commonly employed in GELT, enhancing learners' communication strategies and capacity for effective English use in global contexts.
Chapter
Research methodology plays a pivotal role in generating new knowledge in any academic discipline. Applied Linguistics (AL) researchers use a variety of research methodologies to address different research problems and research questions, given its interdisciplinary nature. Notwithstanding the plethora of research methodologies used by AL researchers, there are some methodologies that are used less frequently. The aim of this volume is to introduce and discuss these less frequently used methodologies. Each methodology is discussed in two chapters, a theoretical and a practical chapter. In the theoretical chapters, the theoretical foundations, methodological orientation, ethical issues, and critiques and responses are discussed. In the practical chapters, a showcase study is presented and discussed, including why the methodology was used, how it was implemented, the challenges the researchers faced, and the insights they gained. The volume contributes to the current methodological discussion in AL and provides early-career and seasoned researchers with the necessary discussion about these methodological orientations. Future AL researchers may use these methodologies to investigate research questions in their areas of interest. In addition, the volume can complement current methodological resources in postgraduate research methodology courses.
Article
This study aims to investigate the mode-divergent practices of pre-service teachers in an online context. Firstly, 16 h of classroom interaction is analyzed via Conversation Analysis utilizing the Classroom Interactional Competence framework. Then, the translanguaging pedagogy perspective complements this analysis by focusing on linguistic, social, and psychological aspects. The conversation-analytical findings demonstrate the failures in constructive alignment, and an inordinate amount of wasted time with no satisfying results has been observed. It is shown that translanguaging pedagogy may support the creative, critical, and strategic utilization of bilingual students' entire repertoires in classroom practices. Overall, the analysis demonstrates how translanguaging pedagogies can inform mode-divergent practices in classrooms by which teachers' interactional competence may be improved.
Chapter
This chapter explores the themes of acculturation and identity transformation among seven Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong. These teachers, who initially taught Chinese as a first language in local Chinese schools, later transitioned to teaching Chinese as a second or near-native language in English-dominant international schools. This study utilises a qualitative research approach, focusing on the long-term teaching experiences of the participants to gain insights into their transformational experiences and acculturation processes from their narratives. We draw on flexible acculturation theory and teacher identity theory to examine the connections and disconnections between acculturation processes and identity change across schools. The findings underscore the participants’ profound meaning-making processes as they trainsitioned from teaching in local schools to international schools. The participants’ previous professional identities as L1 teachers allowed them to draw on multiple resources with a deeper understanding about language teaching and and self-assurance in their changing roles as language educators. They critically reflected on these changing experiences in their subsequent teaching practices within international school contexts. This study holds implications for teacher education and professional development programmes, suggesting the need for tailored initiatives designed to support Chinese language teachers during their transition to teaching in international schools.
Article
Full-text available
Full text available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07908318.2023.2285797 - As part of a larger project that investigates the issue of identities in Hong Kong, this study anchored on the sociocognitive paradigm in second language acquisition (SLA) explores the potential relationship between one’s identity and perceived language accentedness. Our study set in Hong Kong (HK) aims to extend Gatbonton and colleagues’ works (e.g. [2005]. Learners’ ethnic group loyalty and L2 pronunciation accuracy: A sociolinguistic investigation. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 489–511. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588491; [2008]. The ethnic group affiliation and L2 proficiency link: Empirical evidence. Language Awareness, 17(3), 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658410802146867; [2011]. Ethnic group affiliation and patterns of development of a phonological variable. Modern Language Journal, 95(2), 188–204. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01177.x) that examine the relationship between ethnic group affiliation (EGA) and language proficiencies in diglossic contexts. HK is a multi-glossic context where Cantonese, English and Mandarin are the official languages, and they perform distinctive functions in various public and private domains. Through analysing participants’ (n = 65; born between 1970s–1990s) self-identification and their reported accentedness in English and Mandarin, we address the question of whether EGA as a set of social factors has a bearing on a person’s linguistic achievements. Findings indicate that participants’ identification with the Chinese/ HK identity is related to their perceived accentedness in the targeted languages in intricate ways that do not align completely with our predictions. We conclude by calling for further socio-cognitively informed research that investigates multiglossic situations where languages/ language varieties complement or compete with each other.
Chapter
This chapter focuses on embodiment, a process through which we understand abstract concepts by relating them directly to physical experiences. The chapter begins by looking at the role of embodiment in the processing of language and explores whether language is as ‘embodied’ in the second language as it is in the first language. It then explores the ways in which embodied cognition might be exploited for language teaching purposes. The second part of the chapter looks at the related area of gesture and at its role in second language learning and teaching. In line with the embodied cognition hypothesis, the gestures that accompany linguistic content are closely aligned with the semantic and pragmatic content of that content. However, languages vary in terms of the way they use gesture. This variation makes for powerful arguments for paying increased attention to gesture in the language classroom. The chapter examines the different communicative functions of gesture and analyses findings from studies that have investigated the ways in which learning a second language affects one’s use of gesture (and vice versa). It assesses the extent to which the use of gesture can facilitate second language comprehension and production and language learning more generally.
Chapter
This chapter discusses the concept of construction grammar, which concerns the tendency of words to group together to form ‘constructions’ that have meanings of their own. These meanings relate to everyday experience and exist in radial categories. In first language acquisition, knowledge of constructions is acquired through interaction, and the language data that this interaction provides are thought to be analysed through pattern-finding and intention-reading skills. Although the data available to second language learners are different from those available to infants learning their first language, recent research has shown that this usage-based account of language acquisition is highly relevant. This chapter discusses the potential applications of construction grammars, and the theories as to how they are acquired, to second language learning, in both classroom-based and more naturalistic settings. It assesses the findings from studies that have explored the benefits of explicitly introducing second language learners to second language constructions. It also discusses the role played by gesture in constructions and examines the role played by ‘multimodal’ constructions in second language learning and teaching.
Article
Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory has been invaluable for informing new theoretical approaches to the study of L2 acquisition. However, the concept of perezhivanie has been overlook despite playing a central role in crystallising ideas in both Vygotsky's negative arguments and his positive theory. Here, I revisit the concept as a potential means to inform the kind of emic approach to research Firth and Wagner (1997; 2007) had argued was necessary for balance in the field of SLA. As a first step, I examine perezhivanie as discussed in 'The Problem of the Environment' (Vygotsky, 1994), and within the context of other aspects of Vygotsky’s work – his criticisms of psychology; the functional unity of consciousness; the concept of the unit; and holism - to clarify misunderstandings and expand on its theoretical content. I conclude with a discussion of the issues raised when perezhivanie is applied in the study of memory.
Chapter
This study overviews contemporary studies on the use of video games for second language acquisition within the past ten years spanning the development of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and its connections to SLA, definitions of video games, empirical studies on the facilitative roles played by video games for second language (L2) learning and utilizing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) for language learning. The purpose of this chapter is to help the readers obtain a systematic understanding of the development and application of video games in second language education. Findings of this study suggests that players are able to acquire L2 knowledge while playing video games. It also suggests that future research should focus more on the actual integration of video games into language instruction.
Article
This article adopts learning‐behavior tracking as a research methodology within conversation analysis for second language acquisition to investigate its applicability to track and document how learning opportunities through collaborative repair work are brought about and whether they lead to second language (L2) word learning. To this end, the study examines longitudinal video‐recorded data from L2 Arabic dyadic conversations‐for‐learning beyond the classroom over 3 months. Findings highlight empirical and methodological contributions. First, the detailed analyses show that other‐initiated repair of a vocabulary item by the first language (L1) conversation partner is found to create opportunities for learning and lead to learning when it is oriented to as worthy of teaching by the L1 speaker and as a learnable by the L2 learner. Second, the study demonstrates the applicability of the learning‐behavior tracking model in illuminating learnables and teachables and providing evidence for whether learning has occurred as a result of being oriented to as such by both participants in real‐time interaction.
Thesis
Full-text available
Within the conceptual framework of the Sociolinguistics of Globalization and Critical Applied Linguistics, and drawing upon poststructuralism and postmodernism, this research enquiry employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine educational discourses in the Tunisian context. It is set to problematize language idealization and culture essentialization in the Tunisian EFL curriculum. To proceed with the investigation, intertextually-related corpora (the Education Act, the English Programs, a sample EFL textbook, EFL audio-materials) have been critically analyzed by using a number of research tools: CDA, Social Semiotic Analysis, English Users’ Nationality Analysis, Content Analysis and Postcolonial Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal a top-down macro-micro-discourse structure of homogeneity that underlies the Tunisian EFL curriculum. The overarching macro-discourse of nationalism, due to its inherent centripetal force, seems to generate micro-discourses of linguistic normativity, cultural ethnocentricity, subjugated subalternity, and as a corollary, a “curriculum of the hero.” An alternative dialectical macro-micro-discourse structure of heterogeneity, commensurate with the sociolinguistic reality of the Expanding Circle, is recommended. The alternative model, inherently centrifugal in orientation, is contingent upon a macro-discourse of transnationalism, which impacts, and is mutually impacted by micro-discourses of linguistic variation, cultural heteroglossia and agentive subalternity. The alternative macro-micro-discourse structure is expected to generate a curriculum of criticality whose cogito is “I am in the text, therefore I am.” It ultimately suggests moving towards language and culture pedagogy that empowers subalternity to speak and act outside colonial relations of power. The implications of the alternative model for reconciling acrimonious dichotomies and endorsing a pedagogy of criticality and “third space” are delineated. Limitations and recommendations for future research are outlined to open up new pathways for further interrogation of the Tunisian EFL curriculum in order to expand an area of research that is still underexplored. Key words: language, culture, curriculum, discourse, homogeneity, heterogeneity, (de)idealization, (trans)national paradigm, deconstruction, multi-inter-trans-culturality, apriority, posteriority, intertextuality, hegemony, subalternity, Expanding Circle, hybridity, third space, mimicry
Article
Full-text available
Este trabalho examina o uso do inglês como língua adicional para a construção conjunta, local e contingente da oposição das identidades sociais dos participantes de uma sala de aula, através da análise de sua fala-em-interação durante uma atividade pedagógica. Sob a perspectiva teórico-metodológica da Análise da Conversa para Aquisição de Segunda Língua (FIRTH; WAGNER, 2007) e dos estudos das identidades e linguagem no contexto social (MOITA-LOPES, 2002; HALL, 2001), a análise microinteracional empreendida pretende trazer contribuições para uma prática docente inclusiva e reflexiva, que oportunize uma aprendizagem mais significativa e efetiva em sala de aula
Article
Full-text available
Teacher talk plays an important role in second-language classroom interaction. Studies are informed by multiple theories and yet could be classified under two general approaches, i.e., cognitive and social. The two approaches provide different but complementary perspectives on the role of teacher talk in interaction, with a focus on either learners' cognitive change or their social participation. A conversation between them is called for in the academic field to understand their interdependent relationship as well as the loss and gain in the respective approach. However, the conversation is difficult to launch because the cognitive and social approaches have developed distinct perspectives on what constitutes language and how learning evolves, leading to seemingly incompatible descriptive paradigms. With reference to systemic functional linguistics (SFL), this article argues for reconciling the two approaches in the following aspects. First, the meaning-oriented view of language in SFL expands the learning scope beyond language forms and offers both approaches an angle to reconsider the focus of the interaction. Second, the semiotic view of learning in SFL blurs the boundary of cognition and language use and provides a perspective for understanding the mediated role of language in the cognitive and social processes of learning. Finally, the functions of scaffolding in teacher talk revealed by SFL based on a linguistic analysis may not only enrich the description of each approach but also enable findings across the two approaches to be comparable. It is anticipated that SFL would create new spaces for the conversation between the two approaches.
Chapter
Silence in language learning is commonly viewed negatively, with language teachers often struggling to interpret learner silence and identify whether it is part of communication, mental processing, or low engagement. This book addresses silence in language pedagogy from a positive perspective, translating research into practice in order to inform teaching and to advocate greater use of positive silence in the classroom. The first half of the book examines the existing research into silence, and the second half provides research-informed practical strategies and classroom tasks. It offers applicable principles for task design that utilises rich resources, which include visual arts, mental representation, poetry, music, and other innovative tools, to allow both silence and speech to express their respective and interrelated roles in learning. Comprehensive yet accessible, it is essential reading for academic researchers and students in applied linguistics, TESOL, and language teaching, as well as for language teachers and educators.
Chapter
It is frequently assumed that interaction between first language (FL) and second language (SL) speakers is more problematic than between FL-speakers. Since we have been curious whether this can be substantiated by analysing authentic FL-SL interaction, we examined 20 naturally occurring conversations with a focus on places where interactants deal with trouble in hearing or understanding ('other-initiated repair', Schegloff, Jefferson and Sacks 1977). Not a single case of a breakdown could be found in the data set, even though some SL-speakers displayed very low language proficiency. Most cases of other-initiated repair looked just like those of FL-speaker interaction, yet in a few cases, interactants seemed to marshal extraordinary efforts in order to repair trouble in understanding due to second language deficiencies. The most elaborate of these cases is analysed here because it comes closest to a breakdown. It stretches over two minutes, and takes up 139 lines of transcript. Due to the complexity of this case, we had to forgo the option of including other data samples for comparison.
Book
Members of divergent societies are increasingly involved in interactional situations, both publicly and privately, where participants do not share linguistic resources. Second language conversations have become common everyday events in the globalized world, and an interest has evolved to determine how interaction is conducted and understanding achieved in such asymmetric conversations. This book describes how mutual intelligibility is established, checked and remedied in authentic interaction between first and second language speakers, both in institutional and everyday situations. The study is rooted in the interactional view on language, and it contributes to our knowledge on interactional practices, in particular in cases where some doubt exists about the level of intersubjectivity between the participants. It expands the traditional research agenda of conversation analysis that is based on the concepts of ‘membership’ and ‘members’ shared competences’. By showing in detail how speakers with restricted linguistic resources can interact successfully and achieve the (institutional) goals of interactions, this study also adds to our knowledge of the questions that are central in second language research, such as when and how the non-native speakers’ ‘linguistic output’ is modified by themselves or by the native speakers, or when the non-native speakers display uptake after these modifications.
Book
To understand the role of language in public life and the social process in general, we need first a closer understanding of how linguistic knowledge and social factors interact in discourse interpretation. This volume is a major advance towards that understanding. Professor Gumperz here synthesizes fundamental research on communication from a wide variety of disciplines - linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology and non-verbal communication - and develops an original and broadly based theory of conversational inference which shows how verbal communication can serve either between individuals of different social and ethnic backgrounds. The urgent need to overcome such barriers to effective communication is also a central concern of the book. Examples of conversational exchanges as well as of longer encounters, recorded in the urban United States, village Austria, South Asia and Britain, and analyzed to illustrate all aspects of the analytical approach, and to show how subconscious cultural presuppositions can damagingly affect interpretation of intent and judgement of interspeaker attitude. The volume will be of central interest to anyone concerned with communication, whether from a more academic viewpoint or as a professional working, for example, in the fields of interethnic or industrial relations.
Book
Edwin Hutchins combines his background as an anthropologist and an open ocean racing sailor and navigator in this account of how anthropological methods can be combined with cognitive theory to produce a new reading of cognitive science. His theoretical insights are grounded in an extended analysis of ship navigation—its computational basis, its historical roots, its social organization, and the details of its implementation in actual practice aboard large ships. The result is an unusual interdisciplinary approach to cognition in culturally constituted activities outside the laboratory—"in the wild." Hutchins examines a set of phenomena that have fallen in the cracks between the established disciplines of psychology and anthropology, bringing to light a new set of relationships between culture and cognition. The standard view is that culture affects the cognition of individuals. Hutchins argues instead that cultural activity systems have cognitive properties of their own that are different from the cognitive properties of the individuals who participate in them. Each action for bringing a large naval vessel into port, for example, is informed by culture: the navigation team can be seen as a cognitive and computational system. Introducing Navy life and work on the bridge, Hutchins makes a clear distinction between the cognitive properties of an individual and the cognitive properties of a system. In striking contrast to the usual laboratory tasks of research in cognitive science, he applies the principal metaphor of cognitive science—cognition as computation (adopting David Marr's paradigm)—to the navigation task. After comparing modern Western navigation with the method practiced in Micronesia, Hutchins explores the computational and cognitive properties of systems that are larger than an individual. He then turns to an analysis of learning or change in the organization of cognitive systems at several scales. Hutchins's conclusion illustrates the costs of ignoring the cultural nature of cognition, pointing to the ways in which contemporary cognitive science can be transformed by new meanings and interpretations. Bradford Books imprint
Book
Growing up Constructivist - Languages and Thoughtful People Unpopular Philosophical Ideas - A History in Quotations Piaget's Constructivist Theory of Knowing The Construction of Concepts Reflection and Abstraction Constructing Agents - The Self and Others On Language, Meaning and Communication The Cybernetic Connection Units, Plurality, and Number To Encourage Students' Conceptual Constructing.
Book
This book explores the relationship between conversation analysis and applied linguistics, demonstrating how the analysis of institutional talk can contribute to professional practice. With a foreword by Paul Drew, the core of the collection deals with topics as diverse as speech therapy and retailing; radio journalism and cross-cultural training. © Selection, editorial matter and their chapters. Keith Richards and Paul Seedhouse, 2005, Foreword and Chapters 2-14 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, 2005.
Chapter
This chapter examines whether the concept of negotiating activity is useful for the description of technical problem solving. It outlines a procedure for solving technical problems and describes how two technical problems are handled during several telephone and telefax communications. Three different cases of problem solving are examined in the chapter by employing two different concepts of sequence. The first is the problem solving sequence that is modeled on the interaction observed in the first Case. The second problem is the concept of negotiating activity. The two sequences have a different theoretical status. In Case one, the interaction proceeds nicely from the definition of the problem through a negotiation of different solutions towards the consensus regarding which solution to implement. In the two other cases examined, one participant begins with a request. The definition of the problem and its possible solutions are unfolded in the interaction by the participants' movements toward the definitive solution. On a superficial level it could be said that the problem concerning Case one is to close the box, concerning Case two to find a suitable cable-connection, and concerning Case three the possibility of removing the ventilator from the pressostate.
Chapter
Telephone conversation is one of the most common forms of communication in contemporary society. For the first time in human history, some people are spending as much time, if not more, talking on the telephone as they are on face-to-face conversations. The aims of this book are: to bring together in one volume research on telephone conversations in different languages, to compare and contrast people’s methods of handling telephone conversational tasks in different communities, and to explore the relationship between telephone conversational practice and cultural settings. The papers are based on first-hand, naturally-occurring data obtained from a variety of languages, including Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Persian. Theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to research on telephone conversations are discussed.
Book
The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition presents an integrated discussion of key, and sometimes controversial, issues in second language acquisition research. Discusses the biological and cognitive underpinnings of SLA, mechanisms, processes, and constraints on SLA, the level of ultimate attainment, research methods, and the status of SLA as a cognitive science. Includes contributions from twenty-seven of the world's leading scholars. Provides an invaluable resource for all students and scholars of human cognition, including those in linguistics, psychology, applied linguistics, ESL, foreign languages, and cognitive science.
Book
This book is a systematic attempt to address the issue of fossilization in relation to a fundamental question in second language acquisition research, which is: why are learners, adults in particular, unable to develop the level of competence they have aspired to in spite of continuous and sustained exposure to the target language, adequate motivation to learn, and sufficient opportunity to practice?
Article
This chapter examines the discourse-based work undertaken by commodity traders in their attempts to negotiate mutually acceptable changes to terms and conditions of sale. It focuses on the way the negotiations are undertaken by telephone. The materials examined in the chapter are five audio-recorded international telephone negotiations, undertaken within the export section of Melko Dairies, a large Danish-based conglomerate. Each of the five telephone negotiations is conducted in lingua franca English, that is, English used between normative speakers, and involves a Danish Export Manager and Middle East-based wholesalers. It was argued that, though locally and contingently managed; the calls are structured in stable, iterative ways. Calls were seen to be opened in methodic ways, as the parties moved into or circumvented casual talk before initiating talk that directly addressed the work-related problem that constituted the reason for the call. By so doing, the parties were seen to orient to an orderly and locally-accomplished point of entry into the negotiation calls. This point of entry was reached most visibly in the way the current call was tied to a preceding communication, and, therefore, shown to be an embedded part of a series of interrelated work tasks. The so-called retrospective tying reference, and its accompanying formulation of the contents of the preceding message, served to establish a rudimentary working agenda for subsequent talk.
Article
Language and culture are concepts increasingly found at the heart of developments in applied linguistics and related fields. Taken together, they can provide interesting and useful insights into the nature of language acquisition and expression. In this volume, Joan Kelly Hall gives a perspective on the nature of language and culture looking at how the use of language in real-world situations helps us understand how language is used to construct our social and cultural worlds.The conceptual maps on the nature of language, culture and learning provided in this text help orient readers to some current theoretical and practical activities taking place in applied linguistics. They also help them begin to chart their own explorations in the teaching and researching of language and culture.
Article
Paul Seedhouse's The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective is the fourth volume in the Language Learning Monograph Series. The volumes in this series review recent findings and current theoretical positions, present new data and interpretations, and sketch interdisciplinary research programs. Volumes are authoritative statements by scholars who have led in the development of a particular line of interdisciplinary research and are intended to serve as a benchmark for interdisciplinary research in the years to come. The value of Seedhouse's interdisciplinary focus in the present volume is clear. He synthesizes research from second language acquisition (SLA), applied linguistics, and conversation analysis and helps us to see connections among language pedagogy, classroom talk, and the structures of social action. The reader is reminded that there have been other book-length treatments of second language classroom discourse from the perspective of conversation analysis, but these other books have focused on a small number of lessons or on a small number of classes. Another original contribution of the present volume is that Seedhouse recognizes the tremendous diversity of second language classrooms: Learners differ in their first language(s), whether they speak the same first language or multiple languages, their age, their geographical location, the cultural context of instruction, and so forth. And there are just as many relevant teacher variables. Seedhouse recognizes that diversity by incorporating seven distinct databases of classroom conversations in this study. By comparing talk across many classroom contexts he is able to show that irrespective of that diversity, the reflexive relationship between the pedagogical focus of the lesson and the organization of turn-taking, sequence, and repair holds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
The general aim of this article is to discuss the application of Usage-Based Linguistics (UBL) to an investigation of developmental issues in second language acquisition (SLA). Particularly, the aim is to discuss the relevance for SLA of the UBL suggestion that language learning is item-based, going from formulas via low-scope patterns to fully abstract constructions. This paper examines how well this suggested path of acquisition serves ‘as a default in guiding the investigation of the ways in which exemplars and their type and token frequencies determine the second language acquisition of structure’ (N. Ellis 2002: 170). As such, it builds on and further discusses the findings in Bardovi-Harlig (2002) and Eskildsen and Cadierno (2007). The empirical point of departure is longitudinal oral second language classroom interaction and the focal point is the use of can by one student in the class in question. The data reveal the formulas, here operationalized as recurring multiword expressions, to be situated in recurring usage events, suggesting the need for a fine-tuning of the UBL theory for the purposes of SLA research towards a more locally contextualized theory of language acquisition and use. The data also suggest that semi-fixed linguistic patterns, here operationalized as utterance schemas, deserve a prominent place in L2 developmental research.
Book
Prologue Part I. Practice: Introduction I 1. Meaning 2. Community 3. Learning 4. Boundary 5. Locality Coda I. Knowing in practice Part II. Identity: Introduction II 6. Identity in practice 7. Participation and non-participation 8. Modes of belonging 9. Identification and negotiability Coda II. Learning communities Conclusion: Introduction III 10. Learning architectures 11. Organizations 12. Education Epilogue.
Article
The observation has been made that speech in contacts between native and non-native speakers may be modified and simplified to the point of ungrammaticality (the me Tarzan, you Jane phenomenon). Since the early 1980s, a number of studies in Second Language Acquisition have carried the notion of modification into the analysis of the interaction itself. The goal was to learn about interactional modifications and about how they relate to processes of language acquisition. In these analyses, a number of concepts from Conversation Analysis (CA) have been applied. This paper discusses a number of methodological problems in this research, of which especially the model of communication assumed and the type of data analyzed are the most prominent. Finally the paper discussed problems related to the introduction of core CA concepts into research on native-nonnative speaker communication.
Article
This is a response to the article by Firth and Wagner (F&W) “On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research” that appeared in MLJ 81,3. The present article deals with three areas discussed by F&W. First, I point out that F&W misinterpret my own work as well as that by others who have written within the input/interactionist framework (and within SLA in general); claims that are attributed to certain researchers were not ones made by those researchers. In particular, the scope of inquiry that F&W attribute to some SLA research is quite different from the actual area of inquiry. Second, I deal with the notion of “learners as deficient communicators,” arguing that F&W's attribution of this concept to SLA researchers is flawed. Finally, I discuss F&W's reanalysis of data that originally appeared in some of my earlier publications.