ENG504 Notes Lectures 23-45

Short Notes · Lesson: 23 · Socio-Cultural Theory · Scaffolding has following functions:

Recruiting interest in the task Simplifying the task Maintaining pursuit of the goal Marking critical features and discrepancies between what has been produced and the ideal solution Controlling frustration during problem solving

Principles of Socio-cultural Theory across Time Scales

1. Phylogenesis is the learning that happens across different human races across different periods of time.

2. Microgenesis is the description of how humans learn throughout their life.

3. Ontogenesis is the learning that infants pass through in the course of their early development.

Self-directed Use of language to regulate internal thoughts

Private speech

Young children are well known to engage in private speech, talk to and for themselves rather than for external conversational partners.

Socio-cultural theory interprets it as an evidence of children’s growing ability to regulate their own behavior.

Classic Piagetian theory interprets it as an evidence of children’s egocentrism (child is unable to see the world beyond his/herself).

Vygotsky interprets it as inner speech, a use of language to regulate internal thought without any external articulation.

Lesson: 24

Activity Theory

Activity is defined in terms of sociocultural settings which include;

1. Collaborative interaction
2. Inter-subjectivity (common understanding about task)
3. Assisted performance

Activity theory comprises a series of proposals for the social context within which individual learning takes place. It contains:

•  A subject (student)
•  An object (goal)
•  Actions (goal-directed strategies)
•  Operations (the way action is carried out)

Socio-cultural perspective on SLL

A process of meaning making A collaborative activity Making new meaning through collaborative activity

Ohta 2001 proposed three types of SL Private Speech;

1. Repetition

Utterances of teachers or other students Newly introduced lexical items by teacher Important sentences

2. Vicarious responses

When learner respond privately to a question from teacher Repair or complete someone else’s utterances

3. Manipulation – learners construct their own SL utterances

Scaffolding and SLL in ZPD

How the help of a more proficient learner is offered to the new learner. This help must come within specific zone or space which is called the ZPD.

Lesson: 25

Features of Socio-cultural theory

1. It rejects conventional separation between social and psychological aspects.
2. It also rejects the classic view of language as a formal abstract system that is distinct from language use.
3. Learning is seen as a social and inter-mental activity taking place in the in ZPD.

How tutor’s interventions could be ranged from implicit to explicit corrections

Explicit feedback - very direct and clear Implicit feedback – Not direct, Rectifying by asking learner to check the text again

Findings; Feedback closer to Implicit end leads to;

More independent and self-regulated performance Positive evidence of learning

Sociolinguistic Perspectives to SLL: Sociolinguistics or the study of language in use. Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts. It focuses upon;

1. Variability in SL use – Refers to the fact that SLLs produce different versions of a construction

Factors affecting variability

Internal factors – includes, universal developmental constraints and First language transfer External factors – includes, variation in context, variation based on gender

2. SL socialization - language and culture are not separable. They are acquired together, each supporting the development of the other.
3. Communities of practice – how SLL occurs during speech events or refers to the people who come together for mutual goal.

Lesson: 26

Speech Events – It’s a chunk of conversation which may happen in different situations like;

Telephone conversation Service encounters Classroom lessons Group discussions

Learning as Situated Practice – learning takes place through participation in activities of communities of practice i.e. classrooms.

Power Relations and SLL

Gatekeeping studies

Gatekeepers are the people who tried to manage the boundaries of their groups.

A target language speaker might be a powerful gatekeeper and SL speakers are affected by the unequal power relationship.

Social identity - the sense of ‘belonging’ to a particular social group, whether defined by ethnicity, by language, or any other means.

Language and Identity

Identity is constructed in and through language Language learning is an investment in identity construction

Adult identity transformation

Norton’s study explored changes in social identity over time, particularly the struggle to achieve the right to speak in SL settings.

Lesson: 27

Factors of learner success

Instrumental motivation – one wants to learn any language to reach to another goal. A tool to get larger goal. Integrative motivation – one wants to learn any language due to his/her mere interest

Scope of sociolinguistic approach

There are two methodological strands that can be considered;

Quantitative strands of SL variation - Focus on; Interlanguage variability at lexical and morphological level

Qualitative strands of SL variation - Focus on; Ethnographies analysis techniques which involves Case studies.

Ethnographies - The researcher spends some time in the context where participants live and tries to understand their involvement in their own social context.

Sociolinguistic perspective on interlanguage

Function list tradition – focus on attending to needs Interactionist tradition – systematic analysis of SL interaction which are quantitative Ethnographers of language communication – focus on link between linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of communication.