Harklau

The main approaches to SLA research that have a social orientation identified by the article by Deters and Swain and complemented by Professor Ortega in class were: the sociocultural theory of mind, situated learning, poststructural theories, dialogism, conversation analysis and systemic functional linguistics. Although they are all emphatic on how sociocultural and contextual factors are part of language acquisition, each approach places a different component of language acquisition as being constructed and embedded in the social milieu.

“Cognition as a social phenomenon”: Sociocultural theory of mind

This approach originated in psycholinguistics by Vygotsky in the late 70’s, and argued that to understand cognition it was necessary to understand human culture and history. Human thought is no longer an independent process; it is a product of its social environment and it is manifested by our use of the mediational means available to the individual in a social context. For SLA, the most relevant mediational means are speaking and writing. So we use language as a means to interact and understand/ internalize the environment. For SCT it is also important to look at the history of a process, or in other words at how our meaning-making interaction with the environment changes over time.

Scholars who have done research in SLA using this framework: Lantolff, Swain, Hall.

“Learning as a social phenomenon”: Situated learning

In this approach learning is social because it is the process of becoming part of a community by constructing an identity in which the individual is able to communicate using the community’s language and resources.

Situated learning uses two different frameworks: language socialization and community of practice. They differ in their explicitness about the power differential present in learning. Language socialization is concerned with the process experienced by novice acquiring the knowledge, orientations and practices to participate in a community, manifested primarily through the use of language. The community of practice framework brings the concept of peripherality and legitimacy into play to problematize the different degrees of access and acceptance an individual will have to participate in the community depending on their competence. It is also concerned with the construction of identity through membership, and the how participation is capable of changing the community.

Scholars who have done research in SLA using this framework: Toohey, Duff.

“Sense of self as a social phenomenon”: Poststructuralism

Poststructuralism sees language as a means to construct reality and identity; it implies that individuals have agency in constructing their identity and creating meanings but that they are constricted by discourses and social practices. Every time individuals use language they are reconstructing their subjectivity and depending on how they are positioned in the discourse they will be more or less audible to negotiate their identity.

Scholars who have done research in SLA using this framework: Weedon, Norton Peirce, Higgins

“Discourse as a social phenomenon”: Dialogism

In this view, language has the feature of heteroglossia, meaning that it can simultaneously have several meanings, perspectives and values which are contextually and historically constructed. This framework focuses more on the individual’s agency and the dialogue that he constantly participates in during any instance of language use, whether it is internal or public. And it is through this dialogue that individuals become subjects and author themselves. The voices that they choose are also in dialogue with the environment and history, so language use is an interaction in the present which is borrowing from the past and from other dialogues.

Scholars who have done research in SLA using this framework: Hall, Vitanova, Lee

The last two social frameworks which were omitted in the article were Conversation Analysis, which portrays interaction and conversation as a social phenomenon and communication as something that arises from the social event where it occurs. The other framework, Systemic functional linguistics, redefines grammar as a social phenomenon.

Scholars who have done research in SLA using CA: Kasper
Scholars who have done research in SLA using this Systemic Functional Linguistics: Haliday

Presentation on Harklau’s: From the “ Good Kids” to the “ Worst”: Representations of English Language Learners Across Educational Settings.

The presentation was about Harklau’s ethnographic study about non-native English speakers who have lived in the United States for an extensive period of time and how they are represented differently when they go from one educational context to another. The study was motivated by the “ invisibility” of these students regarding research, policy and pedagogy specially at the postsecondary context.

The author uses the concepts of identity, representation and discourse and she uses a poststructuralist approach. For Harklau, identities are variable, fragmentary and multiple; so in our desire to stabilize and homogenize the fleeting images of identity, we make representations. The range these representations can take is constricted by discourse, which determines what is normal, and it is also subject to the power differential that exists within. In the case of educational discourse, instructors and the institution may have a greater say constructing a student’s representation, and may also have more resources to enforce it (i.e. curriculum). As a representation is legitimized, it is taken for granted and it is through classroom interaction that we can see how representations are enacted and reconstructed, or resisted.

In the study we learn how the same students are represented in opposite ways as they transition from one educational context to another, and how the representation of them in the college setting negatively affects their attitude towards language learning.

During their high school years, the students were seen as hard-working, dedicated and well-behaved, especially when they were placed in low-track classes (classes for underachieving students). Yet, although their cognitive ability was still questioned partly because of their language proficiency, the prevailing representation of the students was positive and as a consequence they were engaged in classroom learning.

As the students entered college, their representation took a turn for the worst. Enacting their self-representation of being dedicated and determined, they enroll in ESL classes to further their language learning. To their surprise, in the eyes of the institution there were two possible representations they should fit into: the international student or the ESL student who has all the bad academic habits of an “American” student. Neither seems like a viable alternative and it seems that in their efforts to cope and resist the available representation of the international student, they seem to reinforce the latter negative representation of being a problem case.

Throughout her study we can see the power representations can have when they become unquestionable truths, and I think it takes very reflective individuals to question what appears to be obvious. In both contexts we see how the image of these students may lead to patronizing attitudes or to the rejection of behaviors the institution is planning to teach: these students already behave like Americans and yet, their behavior is rejected in a class that intends to teach about American culture.

At the college level the problem is especially serious because there is no presence of a positive representation for these students, because the existing one does not really include them, and the one that fits them is negative. If we claim that these students are somewhat invisible in that educational discourse, because the curriculum is ignoring what they have to bring to the classroom, they have no valid academic resources to resist their prevailing negative representation. If the needs of these students were identified and addressed, they would be able to construct and negotiate a more accurate representation of themselves, which would again improve their attitude towards continuing their language learning.