‘My English’ Second Language Learning as Individual and Social Construction

Kurt Kohn University of Tübingen (DE) kurt.kohn@uni-tuebingen.de www.ael.uni-tuebingen.de

Non-native speaker attitudes towards English

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Late 1970s near Boston, Kurt and Neil NNS: “Can I say it like this?” NS: “Never mind, I understand you.” → I want to be like you → You don’t seem to care

Evidence of a NNS’s exonormative preference for NSE Typical of an ELT/EFL/TESOL background Deviations from the NSE role model are at best tolerated Deeply entrenched in teachers’ and learners’ minds

And today? More emphasis (in ELT) on communication, greater tolerance for deviations, particularly in CLIL classrooms Educational regulations for ELT institutions (in Europe) continue to be based on an exonormative NSE role model

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Excellence in ELT

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

is still largely measured and experienced in terms of compliance with an externally given NSE role model.

ELT pupils and students at school and university are being praised for meeting NSE norms.

Deviations may be tolerated, but they are not taken as evidence of success.

Generally, communicative competence is the goal, but it is the communicative competence

of native speakers.

At the same time, however, English outside the ELT classroom has undergone dramatic changes.

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Non-native speakers on the rise

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Labov 1970: “In the sociolinguistic study of language learning, we can begin with the fundamental observation that children do not speak like their parents” (p. 33). [We may add: learners do not speak like their teachers]

Graddol 1997/2000: “Native speakers may feel the language 'belongs' to them, but it will be those who speak English as a second or foreign language who will determine its world future” ( p. 5).

Widdowson 1994/2003: “How English develops in the world is no business whatever of native speakers in England, the United States, or anywhere else. They have no say in the matter, no right to intervene or pass judgement.” (p. 43)

Kohn 2011: “Owning a house is one thing; however, making it one's home is yet another. If non-native speakers accept ownership, they also need to begin to feel responsible for themselves. Before being able to shape the future of English, they need to get their own English into shape. But which direction should they take?” (p.73)

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A NNS’s ownership of English – Shattered dreams or a conceptual misunderstanding –

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

My first serious encounter with the double-edged nature of a NNS’s ownership of English happened at an ELF conference – the NS presenter’s message was that for a NNS of English a NSE orientation was fundamentally wrong and impossible to pursue with any hope for success. The wall too high to climb - the fruit too sweet and out of reach anyway – just not my sociolinguistic reality. I found myself excluded from the enchanted garden. But here I was, a Faustian creature with two souls: a NNS with a desire for some kind of NSE orientation – a desire I was told was unrealistic – a desire, however, that was part of my English self. This was when my quest into the nature of NNS’s ownership of English began – both as a researcher and as a NNS myself. I found my answer in a social constructivist understanding of NNS ownership, i.e. the conceptualization of language learning as the cognitive, emotional and behavioral creation of “my English”.

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Making English my own

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

How do I make English my own?

→ I acquire it

But how do I acquire English? [compare: acquiring a car]

I develop/construct/CREATE my own version of it in my mind, my heart and my behavior

→ based on my target language model, my native language, my attitudes and motivation, my goals & requirements, my learning approach, and the effort I invest

And I do this in communicative, social interaction with others

In this social constructivist sense, the English I develop is my own

– “My English” – It is inevitably different from the TL model toward which it is oriented.

– Not an option, rather part of the human condition –

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Creating “My English” is about . . .

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

. . . creating my communicative-linguistic knowledge & skills lexical and grammatical means of expression how these can be used to fulfil language & communication- related requirements of performance regarding what is possible, appropriate, feasible, and probable (Hymes 1972)

. . . creating my requirements of performance a little child in first language acquisition an immigrant in second language acquisition a ELT learner in lingua franca situations

. . . creating my individual and social identity orientation Who do I want to be? → e.g. am I comfortable with myself? What/who is my role model? → e.g. some kind of NSE By whom do I want to be accepted? → desire for participation

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“My English” Implications for communicative competence

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

More than getting linguistic means of expression right in terms of possibility, appropriateness, feasibility, and probability

More than being able to use linguistic means of expression for achieving communicative needs and purposes

Expressing oneself in keeping with one’s individual and social identity: Expressing One’s Self

→ Perceived success

→ Hearer satisfaction

→ Speaker satisfaction

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“My English” Implications for ELF

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

English as a lingua franca – the variety bias

Typical definitions of ELF seem to suggest that it is a “thing”

The power of concepts: “the way we think and talk about language influences the way we think & talk about . . . “

The “thingness” of ELF is deeply rooted in the intuitive perception and understanding of English teachers: teaching ELF is seen as teaching a certain variety of English

ELF is not a “thing” – a thought experiment Imagine a group of people in an international ELF context What language do they use? What kind of English? I can only speak “My English” > NS, SL or learner English

ELF is about using “My English” under LF conditions Accommodation strategies Meaning negotiation strategies

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My own Standard English

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Imagine my aim was Mid-Atlantic Standard English (MASE)

→ My own simplified, sketchy, uncertain, even “wrong” internal representation

cognitive & emotional creative construction process

based on the language of the people I (like to) talk to

possibly influenced by linguistic descriptions (which are constructions themselves)

What shapes my learning of MASE?

My own cognitive-emotional construction and representation

Linguistic descriptions and teaching models of MASE only influence me through the constructive process of mediation and adaptation

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Native speaker / Standard English as a target model for learning

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Learners are required to comply with the NSE (teaching) norms – the closer they get, the better

Strong version of a NSE orientation

Understanding language learning as a behaviorist copying process lurks in the background

Learners take NSE as a model for orientation – they create their own version of it

Weak version of a NSE orientation

Understanding language learning as a constructivist process of cognitive and emotional creation

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ELT research and practice Theoretical beliefs & pedagogic orientations

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

1. An exonormative NSE orientation appears to be a given [> BE or GA in German secondary schools]

2. The (strong!) exonormative NSE orientation is generally accepted by both teachers and learners

3. Any deviation from the NSE model is at best tolerated; it is “never” experienced as something positive

4. Even in communicative approaches, learning is oriented toward a NSE model

5. A new turn is brought about by CLIL: content and language integrated learning

Endonormative processes (“My English”) are not valued

Because of the (strong) exonormative perspective, learners tend to stay (partially) alienated from their own creativity resulting in frustration, anxiety and even fear

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ELF research and practice Theoretical beliefs & pedagogic orientations

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

1. ELF development is seen as a creative endonormative process

2. Deviations from NSE are accepted if they are communicatively successful > focus on comprehensibility

3. The endonormative nature of ELF development is regarded as incompatible with an exonormative NSE orientation

4. Emphasis is on spoken ELF communication

5. A new turn (Seidlhofer 2011): teaching ELF is about the process of developing the kind of English users/learners are able to make authentic for themselves – including NSE (!)

Need to go beyond communicative acceptability > speaker satisfaction (Albl-Mikasa 2009)

Need for more attention to written ELF communication (Horner 2011)

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A constructivist resolution of the ELT/ELF divide

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

The divide between ELT and ELF

ELF emphasizes endonormativity against exonormativity

Because of ELT’s exonormative bias, ELF-based pedagogic suggestions are met with suspicion in ELT: “Do you want me to teach incorrect English” (German teacher and teacher educator)

The need for a reconciliation

Challenges arising from ELF-specific sociolinguistic realities

Inconsistent educational regulations for schools in Germany

What should be done?

ELF: extension of the endonormative view to include a “weak” NSE orientation

ELT: adoption of an endonormative conceptualization of language learning & teaching (“My English”) along with an acceptance of a constructivist, “weak” NSE orientation

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ELF in the foreign language classroom

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Focus on raising awareness for LF manifestations of English to increase tolerance for others and for oneself

Focus on developing ELF-specific comprehension skills to get accustomed to NNS accents and “messy” performance

Focus on developing ELF-specific production skills to improve pragmatic fluency and strategic skills for

accommodation and collaborative negotiation of meaning in intercultural ELF situations

Exposure to a wide variety of ELF speakers

Focus on form within communicative tasks (with a weak NSE orientation)

Interaction in ELF communication

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ELF in the foreign language classroom, cont’d

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Focus on developing the learner’s sense of ownership (“agency”) to ensure speaker satisfaction and self-confidence

What are the conditions that make this possible?

Imagine an “inhibited” learner in school . . .

Liberation though communicative participation in an authentic speech fellowship or community of practice

How can “liberating” conditions be successfully implemented through educational approaches & scenarios? CLIL - Practice Enterprise - Creative Writing “Pushed output processing” (Swain 2006) - with increased self- satisfaction as a target (instead of better compliance with an external norm) Authentic & autonomous web-based communication & collaboration All with the aim to explore and extend one’s own creativity (→ Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development)

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The potential of e-learning

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

An e-learning platform like Moodle,

enhanced with web2 tools (e.g. forum chat, Skype, wiki, blog), and combined with online CLIL resources

provides a great potential for autonomous, authentic and collaborative language learning:

Flexible practice activities (reading, writing, listening, speaking) with texts, images, sound and video

Real (online) communication & interaction for content and language integrated learning with new possibilities for “incidental” language learning

Blended Language Learning to enhance face-to-face classroom activities

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(→ Kohn 2009, 2012)

Examples from our European projects

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

BACKBONE: Pedagogic Corpora for Content and Language Integrated Learning

http://projects.ael.uni-tuebingen.de/backbone/moodle http://purl.org/backbone/searchtool

PELLIC: Practice Enterprise for Language Learning and Intercultural Communication

http://projects.ael.uni-tuebingen.de/pellic

icEurope: Intercultural Foreign Language Communication and Learning

http://projects.ael.uni-tuebingen.de/iceurope/moodle

TELF: Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca Corpus http://projects.ael.uni-tuebingen.de/telf

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Closing remark

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Let us embrace the non-native speakers’ “own” English – guided by their “own” NSE orientation – pushed by their communicative needs and identification purposes – fuelled by their creativity!

According to the constructivist insight, a learner’s "own mark" is more than being allowed to drop the copula or 3rd person 's' – it is rather about being allowed and encouraged to be oneself.

Excellence in TESOL takes a giant step forward

when learners are given the space for developing their own English

– for being themselves – in keeping with their individual and social identities

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Final quotes

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Keith Gilyard 2011: “ . . the idea that students were writers and not merely people learning to write, that they already had meaningful things to express, and that those gestures toward meaning had to take priority over the rigid, narrow, formal exercises laid out in many writing classrooms” (p.28).

“. . . that NNS of English are speakers of English and not merely people learning English”

Jane L.H.: “Taking ownership is really about identity, creativity, and the energy we use to express these in words: using/constructing language to communicate in a way that no other can exactly duplicate because of the user’s inherent uniqueness. [. . .] I see my own perception of my native language and its ecology change as I watch my students take ownership: learning its structures, experimenting with vocabulary and voice, and imprinting all with their own identity. I don’t think it gets any better.” (TESOL online discussion, Feb 16th, 2012

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References

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Learning as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012

Albl-Mikasa, M. (2009). Who’s afraid of ELF: “failed” natives or non-native speakers struggling to express themselves? In Albl-Mikasa, M., Braun, S. & Kalina, S. (eds.). Dimensionen der Zweitsprachenforschung – Dimensions of Second Language Research. Festschrift für Kurt Kohn. Narr Verlag, 109-129. Gilyard, K. (2011). True to the Language Game. African American Discourse, Cultural Politics, and Pedagogy. Routledge. Graddol, D. (1997/2000). The Future of English. A Guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century. The British Council. Horner, B.(2011). Writing English as a lingua franca. In Archibald, A. et al. (eds.). Latest Trends in ELF Research. Cambridge Scholars, 299-311. Hymes, D.H. (1972). On communicative competence. In Pride, J.B. & Holmes, J. (eds.). Sociolinguistis: Selected Readings. Penguin, 269-293. Kachru, B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English in the outer circle. In Quirk, R. & Widdowson, H.G. (eds.). English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures. CUP, 11-30. Kohn, K. (2009). Computer assisted language Learning. In Knapp, K. & Seidlhofer, B. (eds.). Foreign Language Communication and Learning. Handbooks of Applied Linguistics 6. Mouton-de Gruyter, 573–603. Kohn, Kurt (2011). English as a lingua franca and the Standard English misunderstanding. In De Houwer, A. & Wilton, A. (eds.). English in Europe Today. Sociocultural and Educational Perspectives. Benjamins, 72-94. Kohn, K. (2012). The BACKBONE project: pedagogic corpora for content and language integrated learning. Objectives, methodological approach and outcomes. Eurocall Review (to appear). Labov, W. (1970). The Study of Non-standard English. National Council of Teachers of English. Seidlhofer , B. (2011). Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. OUP. Swain, M. (2006). Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In Byrnes, H. (ed.). Advanced Language Learning: The Contributions of Halliday and Vygotsky. Continuum, 95-108. Widdowson, H. (2003). Defining Issues in English Language Teaching. OUP.

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Thank you

Kurt Kohn – ”My English: Second Language Acquisition as Individual & Social Construction” – TESOL, 28-31 March 2012 22