Language learning as participation and socialisation

Language learning as participation
and socialisation

Dr Gabriela Meier

Overview



Look at 2
nd

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

expert

expert

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 Wenger

1998

CoP

theory based

on situated learning









(Lave and Wenger 1991:29)

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?





周楮欠潦oy潵爠污湧lage敡牮楮i. 坨慴W


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).



P
rocess 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
handout

1.
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:
s
ocio
-
cultura
l

(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

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 socialisation

Research: 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=mdkz59vfn3g


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 access

State maintained

Approx. 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 4
th

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: COP

Breen, Michael (2001)
Learner Contributions to Language Learning: New Directions in
Research. Longman

Duff, 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.