Philip Chappell

Group work in the English language curriculum : sociocultural and ecological perspectives on second language classroom learning

Foreword PART I Introduction to Part I: Interaction in the Second Language Curriculum 1. An Ecological Perspective on the Interactive Second Language Classroom 2. Teacher and Learner Roles in the Interactive Classroom PART II Introduction to Part II: Group Work and the Second Language Curriculum 3. The Social Functions of Group Work: Optimising Interpersonal Relations 4. Building Field Knowledge Through Collective Thinking and the Joint Construction of Knowledge 5. Using Groups to Promote Oral Fluency - Language Development in Interaction 6. Emphasis on Language Form and Function - Group Work and the Development of Linguistic Knowledge 7. Using Groups Strategically - Negotiating Textual Meanings Through Group Work 8. Integrating Group Work into Lesson and Unit Plans

Creativity through inquiry dialogue

CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments 1. Creativity and Language Teaching Rodney H. Jones and Jack C. Richards Section One: Theoretical Perspectives 2. Language and Creativity Rodney H. Jones 3. Creativity and Language Learning Rod Ellis 4. Conceptualizing Creativity and Culture in Language Teaching Karen Densky 5. The Vexed Nature of Language Teaching and Learning James Paul Gee 6. Translating Writing Worlds: Writing as a Poet, Writing as an Academic Jane Spiro and Sue Dymoke Section Two: Creativity in the Classroom 7. Exploring Creativity in Language Teaching Jack C. Richards and Sara Cotterall 8. Creativity in Language Teaching: Voices from the Classroom Simon Coffey and Constant Leung 9. Creativity through Inquiry Dialogue Philip Chappell 10. Critical Creativity and Multilingual Texts Julie Choi Section Three: Creativity in the Curriculum 11. Creativity in the Curriculum Kathleen Graves 12. Creativity and Technology in Second Language Learning and Teaching Alice Chik 13. Creativity in Language Teaching in the Disciplines Christiph A. Hafner Section Four: Creativity in Teacher Development 14. Conversations about Creativity: Connecting the New to the Known through Images, Objects and Games Kathleen M. Bailey and Anita Krishnan 15. Creativity as Resistance: Implications for Language Teaching and Teacher Education Susan Ollerhead and Anne Burns 16. Cultivating Creative Teaching via Narrative Inquiry Cynthia Nelson List of ContributorsLanguage learning is a vexed topic. There really is no unitary phenomenon covered by the term “language learning.” Learning a first native language as a monolingual is not the same as learning two or more native languages (Grosjean, 1984, 2010). Learning to deal with a great many languages around you (as in parts of Africa) is not the same as learning to deal with one or two (Finnegan, 1988). People learn “foreign” languages in many different ways for many different purposes. Learning a language in a classroom is different than learning one in situ. Learning a vernacular variety of a language is not the same as learning a specialized register like the language of physics (Gee, 2004). It is not surprising that learning language is not a single phenomenon, since language itself is not (Chomsky, 1986). The word “language” does not name anything very coherent from a theoretical point of view. German and Dutch are called different languages largely for political reasons and state boundaries. They could just as well be seen as dialects of the same language. At the same time, there are some dialects of German that are mutually uninterpretable, yet they are said to be the same language. Furthermore, any one language, like English or Russian, is composed of many different dialects and registers such as the language of physics or the language of Yu-Gi-Oh (Gee, 2004). Every speaker of a “language” fails to know many—actually most—dialects and registers. And, then, too, written language is not the same as oral language, and the two are not learned in the same way (Gee, 2015; Pinker, 1994). Oral language has accompanied humans from at or near their evolutionary origins. Written language has not and is relatively new on the scene. Yet we call both of them “language.”

Inquiry Dialogue: A Genre for Promoting Teacher and Student Speaking in the Classroom

The aim of this chapter is to expand the possibilities of teacher–student spoken interaction with a particular focus on international students studying in English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) in Australia. It promotes the notion of ‘inquiry dialogue’ and, using transcripts of classroom interaction, demonstrates how this approach may be preferable to more tradition Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRF) sequences. Step-by-step guidelines are provided including initiating, narrowing and closing topics.

Using Groups to Promote Oral Fluency — Language Development in Interaction

This chapter presents an argument for the importance of promoting opportunities for developing oral fluency in language lessons. It begins with an account of fluency that takes both a sociosemiotic and socio-cultural perspective. Vygotsky’s suggestion that a developmental view should focus on the process rather than the product of development allows for a view of fluency that also includes development of linguistically accurate spoken communication. When teachers relax the framing of the pedagogic discourse in small group interactions, they allow students to develop their oral fluency, which also allows for the development of linguistic accuracy, as seen in the data presented.

Teacher and Learner Roles in the Interactive Second Language Classroom

The chapter begins with a discussion of the interactive classroom, focusing on context and pedagogic discourse. Context is presented as both a social and linguistic construct. Pedagogic discourse consists of principles for the control and dissemination of meaning, developed by Bernstein in his mission to unpack and articulate the social bases of pedagogic relations. Classification and framing provide a structured perspective of the power relations in classroom activity. The roles of the teacher and learners are considered with reference to classroom data, with classification and framing supporting the analysis. The chapter concludes with taxonomy of roles for teachers and learners.

The Social Functions of Group Work: Optimising Interpersonal Relations

The central argument proposed in Chapter Three is that building a positive affective classroom climate is crucial for maximising learning. An historical overview of educational practices underscores this significance for classrooms that rely on interaction as sources of learning. Based on analyses of classroom talk, the concept of an ideal pedagogic subject position is developed. How the teacher controls the framing of the classroom talk influences the affective climate and therefore the responsiveness of the students. Through a linguistic and multimodal analysis of classroom talk, an argument is made that a positive affective climate is foundational to shaping classroom contexts for effective learning involving semiotic mediation.

Building Field Knowledge through Collective Thinking and the Joint Construction of Knowledge

Moving from the interpersonal to the experiential role of language, this chapter explores how group work facilitates the building of content knowledge for language lessons. When learners, working in groups, have a shared perspective of the goal-oriented classroom activity, there is potential for collective thinking, joint construction of knowledge and scaffolding during semiotically mediated activity. Central to all of this is the teacher’s role as manager of classroom talk and classroom interaction at three critical points in time: while leading in to the group work, during the group activity and when ‘deconstructing’ the activity (usually as a whole class).

Integrating Group Work into Lesson and Unit Plans

In this final chapter, a practical application is proposed for planning in the second language curriculum. Through introducing a teaching/learning cycle, an argument is developed for thorough integration of group work into the curriculum. A specific form of assessment, similar to formative assessment, is introduced. Dynamic assessment is fundamentally different, however, in that it requires the teacher to be following the principles of semiotic mediation presented throughout the book. Without this informed, theoretically rich and robust pedagogic approach, assessment runs the risk of being random acts when teachers are not tuned into creating zones of proximal development for their learners.

Emphasis on Language Form and Function — Group Work and the Development of Linguistic Knowledge

Chapter Six focuses on lessons in which the development of linguistic (mainly lexicogrammatical) knowledge is the primary aim. The zone of proximal development is the key theoretical construct used to analyse at the micro level the talk in small groups that supports the development of linguistic knowledge. Collective scaffolding, internalisation and imitation are elaborated upon further, together with an argument for group zones of proximal development. A specific form of imitation, persistent imitation, is presented as a significant process in the internalisation of new knowledge.

Using Groups Strategically — Negotiating Textual Meanings through Group Work

Chapter Seven further develops the ecological theory that provides cohesion to the theoretical framework for language and learning. Language learning is more than actively perceiving linguistic features in the environment. It is the human mind functioning as an integral feature of the environmental context, which affords the learner opportunities for action. The mind is able to recognise those affordances largely through a process of anticipation. Pedagogic anticipatory schemas are important intervention tools to support learning and teaching activity where students are engaged in developing meanings from texts. At times, these schemas can become integrated with similarly staged curriculum genres, maximising student engagement and opportunities for learning.