The Role of Context in Language Teachers' Self Development and Motivation

Perspectives from Multilingual Settings

Amy S. Thompson

• Editorial: Multilingual Matters
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781800411203
• Categoría: Psychology
• Categoría: Personality in Psychology

This book unpacks data from conversations with bi-/multilingual EFL teachers whose L1s are languages other than English and who are from understudied contexts – Argentina, Egypt, Estonia, Senegal, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam – to provide insights into the formation of ideal teacher selves. The author discusses the complexities surrounding the development of the teachers' selves and motivation, as well as their intertwinement with the sociopolitical realities of their individual contexts. The work reveals how these realities, and the specific social interactions that occur therein, influence the language learning and teaching processes; it also challenges the notions of and the need for a native/non-native speaker dichotomy in the field. Expanding on Ushioda's (2009) person-in-context approach and reflecting on the multilingual settings of the teachers, the integration of the context-specific politics of language learning and teaching is a fresh approach to work in motivation.

1 Introduction

Who am I when I speak English?

Claire Kramsch

The relationship between self and context is not straightforward. Although this connection has been studied for decades, questions, such as those that Norton (2020: 159) poses, are still being asked: ‘How do we theorize the complex relationship between the language learner and the social world?’. The epigraph to this chapter, ‘Who am I when I speak English?’ is from Kramsch’s afterword from Norton’s (2013) revision of her seminal 2000 publication: Identity and Language Learning. The question is embedded in a discussion of the historic shift in frameworks in second language acquisition (SLA), which brought about a concern for identity (and, thus, self-concept): interactionist and sociocultural SLA leading to a social turn (Block, 2003), large-scale migrations, and the spread of global English. As Kramsch (2013: 194) states, ‘The transformation of English from a national language to a global language gave issues of identity a crucial importance: who am I when I speak English? Or, as Bonny Norton put it, how do I understand my relationship to the world and my possibilities for the future?’. Each individual’s relationship with English (or any other language) and the context in which it is used, relates to Mercer’s (e.g. 2016) argument: context is not monolithic. It cannot be assumed that one culture equals a singular context, nor can it be assumed that the interaction of context and self will be the same for every person in a similar language use situation. Nonetheless, it is impossible to examine the language learning, use, and motivation of individuals without some understanding of specific sociopolitical realities. With her person-in-context view of motivation, Ushioda (2009) illustrates this point:

Let me summarise then what I mean by a person-in-context relational view of motivation. I mean a focus on real persons, rather than on learners as theoretical abstractions; a focus on the agency of the individual person as a thinking, feeling human being, with an identity, a personality, a unique history and background, a person with goals, motives and intentions; a focus on the interaction between this self-reflective intentional agent, and the fluid and complex system of social relations, activities, experiences and multiple micro- and macro-contexts in which the person is embedded, moves, and is inherently part of. (Ushioda, 2009: 220)

The review of the literature in Chapter 1 serves to tease apart (and then bring back together) the complexities revolving around context, development of self, and motivation, culminating in an overview of ideal teacher selves. Chapter 1 prepares the reader for the subsequent chapters in this text: data analysis and discussion of the narratives of non-native speaker (NNS) English language teachers in a variety of understudied contexts intertwined with the sociopolitical realities of the contexts involved. The last part of this chapter includes a methods section for the narrative data collected from the English language educators. For the context-specific chapters in the different sociopolitical contexts, the narrative data is a representation of the English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors’ perspectives in relation to their context, including the social interactions therein. Both the sociopolitical realities and the specific social interactions that occur in these realities influence the language learning and teaching processes (Benson, 2019).

Early Forays into the Role of Context in Language Learning

In the field of motivation research, the connection between language learners and the social milieu was detailed in Gardner’s (1985) seminal work on the socio-educational (SE) model of motivation. Within this model, Gardner proposed the concept of integrativeness, or the motivation to learn a language because of a desire to become closer to the community that speaks that language. Norton (2020: 156) cites an address that Gardner gave in 2009 at the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, detailing that integrativeness is the openness of an individual to integrate aspects of a different culture into their own identity. Gardner (2010) writes that language is not merely the linguistic system but it is also the societal norms that accompany the language in question. Norton (2020: 160) has a similar notion: ‘the construct of “language” is not only a linguistic system of words and sentences, but also a social practice in which identities and desires are negotiated in the context of complex and often unequal social relationships’. Indeed, Norton (2020: 153) compared her concept of investment (see also Norton, 2000) and Gardner’s of motivation; she argues that both scholars place an importance on the relationship of the learner and society, ‘particularly with respect to questions of identity’.

Around the same time as Gardner’s (1985) publication, Clément (1980, 1986) proposed a socio-contextual model that examined how language learning was impacted by the macro-societal context. A central part of this model is the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality (ELV) or ‘the social and structural characteristics of a language community, which promote its survival’ (Rubenfeld & Clément, 2020: 111). An example of ELV is described in Clément and Noels (1992), who found that Francophones identified more strongly with Anglophones in terms of media and symbolic aspects of ethnicity when they were situated in a minority Francophone (i.e. majority Anglophone) context in Canada, such as the province of Ontario. In other words, context plays a role in identity, integration, and thus, language learning motivation and self-concept.

Operationalization of Context

Over the years, context has been operationalized in a variety of ways, as Ushioda (2011: 187) indicates: ‘the scope of what we mean by learning context can vary greatly, depending on how we choose to circumscribe our analytical lens in terms of environment – e.g., within or beyond the physical, social and cultural boundaries of the classroom setting’. In a subsequent publication, Ushioda (2015: 49) poses the questions, ‘how do we identify and delimit the multiple contextual elements that are empirically relevant to motivational development? How narrowly or widely should we focus our contextual lens? …Should we consider cultural context in the sense of national culture, or local institutional culture, or the “small culture” (Holliday, 1999) of a particular classroom?’. In an earlier publication, Gardner and Clément (1990) indicate three levels of context: that of the language, of a specific encounter, and the larger context of society. Sampasivam and Clément (2014) add to Harwood’s (2010) contact space framework, which is a visualization of the types of interactions in a particular context. As described, there are three main types of contact: face-to-face, mass media, and imagined contact. Face-to-face contact is when learners communicate with speakers in that language. Mass media contact is ‘in terms of exposure to the L2 and its cultural artifacts’ (Sampasivam & Clément, 2014: 32). Imagined contact is related to the vividness part of the ideal self in the second language (L2) Motivational Self System (L2MSS; Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). In a different multipronged view of context, Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008: 205) indicate that context is composed of the learner variables (what the learner brings to the situation), the cultural context, the social context, and the pedagogical context.

In terms of the theoretical underpinnings of Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) L2MSS, the two psychological aspects of self (ideal and ought-to) have taken priority in the literature, with very little attention to the learning experience aspect of the L2MSS. As Dörnyei (2019: 22) states ‘It was felt right from the beginning that the label L2 Learning Experience was hardly more than a broad, place-holding umbrella term that would need to be fine-tuned at one point, but it appears that the interest in the potentials of the new self-approach has overshadowed this research need, thereby leaving the L2 Learning Experience the Cinderella of the L2 Motivational Self System’. In this recent publication, Dörnyei proposes that learner engagement be equivocated to the learning experience prong of the L2MSS, as engagement is in line with current communicative trends of language pedagogy. It is suggested that the different facets of the learning environment can be ‘broken down into more specific meaningful facets’ (Dörnyei, 2019: 25), such as the school context, syllabus and teaching materials, learning tasks, one’s peers, and the teacher. Arguably, what is missing from this proposal is in which sociopolitical context the learning environment is situated, as this would inevitably have an influence on the school curriculum, as well as on the language teaching methodology. This sociopolitical context is also connected to the concept of the network of relationships (Mercer, 2016) that are formed between actors in a specified context. Another point of view on the integration of the ‘learning experience’ aspect of the L2MSS comes from Thompson (2017b), who argued that the L2MSS is essentially composed of two parts: the psychological aspects of self (ideal and ought-to, plus the proposed anti-ought-to) and the learning experience, which is language use in context. Specifically talking about the learning experience, Thompson (2017b) states the following:

The learning experience is the aspect of the L2MSS that looks at the context of the language learning process and the effect of the context on the psychological aspects of self. Target language exchanges are comprised of interactions both in and out of the classroom and include both successful and unsuccessful experiences. As such, there are effects of instructional context and peers, and it is important to note that the language learners themselves can also have an effect on their context (i.e., the influence of context is bidirectional). In the current study, the learning experience aspect of the model specifically relates to the linguistic landscape of the United States and the target language choice. (Thompson, 2017b: 484)

As noted, the learning experience aspect of the L2MSS can be operationalized in a variety of ways (see Dörnyei [2019] for a summary). In this project, the learning experience is most broadly defined as the larger sociopolitical context of the EFL teachers in question.

The EFL-teacher-focused chapters are organized by geographical setting (i.e. country), but it is also relevant to note Mercer’s (2016: 13) argument: context is not monolithic but refers to ‘multiple levels of contexts stretching from micro-level interactional contexts to macro-level cultures’ (see also Serafini, 2020). In other words, it cannot be assumed that every individual’s contextual situation has the same external variables, nor can it be assumed that each individual interacts with the context in the same way. Mercer (2016: 12) states that ‘acknowledging the role of contexts is only a first step’ and posits that further exploration needs to be done to examine the complexities between learner and context. Although the role of context in language learning, self-development, and motivation cannot be ignored, ‘At times, cultures and contexts appear to be presented as static, monolithic, external entities which affect individual characteristics in a simple unidirectional manner. Such simplistic views of cultures or contexts risk distorting the nature of an individual’s relationship with them and potentially leading to unintended stereotyping and over-generalisations’ (Mercer, 2016: 12). As is the case with much of the research on attitudes and beliefs, van Dijk (2009) argues that contexts are subjective, interpretations of which depend on the individual(s) involved. From this argument, Mercer (2016: 16) indicates that ‘generalisable simplistic understandings of contexts cannot be assumed to be the same for everyone’. Relating this concept back to Sampasivam and Clément’s (2014) updated contact space framework, learners will potentially have a different reaction to the same interlocutor or teacher, will like or dislike different types of music and other cultural artifacts, and will have unique ways of imagining an ideal self. The EFL teachers in this book illustrate their own interaction with languages and contexts; however, it should not be assumed that their experiences speak for all EFL teachers in a similar context. Summarizing the role of context in SLA research, Ushioda (2011: 189) states, ‘In short, there is no doubt that context matters in SLA, yet what matters just as much is the individual agency of L2 learners, inherently part of and actively shaping the developing contexts of learning, input and interaction in which they are situated’.

Operationalization of Self

The term self and how development of the self relates to language learning motivation has been operationalized in a variety of different ways and through the lens of several different frameworks, which Mercer (2016) describes as a cognitive versus contextualized divide. The cognitive selves focus on ‘mental representations of self in a more abstract, isolated manner’ as opposed to ‘more strongly situated definitions of the self in which its contextualised, socially constructed and dynamic character is foregrounded’ (Mercer, 2016: 11, see also Turner et al., 2006). Claro (2020) describes the self in terms of two different motivational frameworks: integrativeness is described as having an external referent and the ideal self is described as having an internal referent. As others have indicated, however (e.g. Ushioda, 2014), external referents can be internalized; likewise, individuals can also have an influence on the external referents (i.e. the context). Kostoulas and Mercer (2016) describe what they perceive to be the three milestones in self-related research: Norton’s (2000) self-construct of identity; Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) proposal of the L2MSS; and the most recent concept of self, largely led by Mercer, which looks at individual difference research, including the concept of self, through more holistic theoretical perspectives. Describing this recent trend, Kostoulas and Mercer (2016: 129) write, ‘Increasingly, the self is being described through theoretical frames, such as complexity-informed perspectives, that foreground the interconnections and the situated and dynamic nature of individual characteristics’.

One framework that is being used to illustrate the dynamic relationships of the self is that of social networks. Carolan (2013: 3) describes the uniqueness of social network analysis: ‘What makes it distinct is that, in addition to focusing on the individual, the relationships that connect that individual to another are of central importance… Relationships defined by connections among individual units—students, teachers, or school districts—are a fundamental aspect of social network analysis’. Mercer (2014a) has used this framework to ‘work with contexts and cultures in a truly integrated manner from a complexity perspective’ (Mercer, 2016: 20), as ‘[o]ne suggestion of how to make any complex dynamic system more amenable for research is to conceptualise it as a network’ (Mercer, 2015a: 73). Mercer (2014a) explains that her concept of social network theory as it relates to the self was influenced by integrative models and that it documents all relationships of the individual so that the ‘context becomes embedded in the network’. Even though the contexts are embedded in the network, the learner can still have ‘an explicit relationship with a particular context, such as with a specific class, school, educational institution or culture’ (Mercer, 2014a: 65). By researching the self in this fashion, the idea that cultures or contexts are not monolithic is emphasized, as the sense of self emerges through the specific relationships that a learner forms as a result of a multitude of interactions and multiple points in time (Mercer, 2016). Even if two learners in the same context had the same interactions, the perceptions of these interactions would be distinct, thereby forming a different sense of self, as ‘there is a mutually constitutive and co-adaptive relationship between internal and social-environmental processes. Identity both moulds and is moulded by shifting relations and social networks’ (Ushioda, 2015: 51).

The Dynamic Relationship between Self and Context

In the previous sections, potential operationalizations of both context and self have been proposed; in this section, the relationship between self and context will be explored further. Studies have shown that differing motivational profiles of individuals are ‘shaped by components of his/her immediate social context’ (Thompson & Vásquez, 2015: 163). In the person-in-context view of motivation, there is a symbiotic relationship between self and context: ‘learners shape and are shaped by context’ (Ushioda, 2015: 48; see also Serafini, 2020). Mercer (2016: 15) reflects on the multiple time dimensions of the relationship of self and co...

Índice

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Senegal: ‘We English teachers, we speak English’
• 3 Vietnam: ‘English is a privilege for me’
• 4 Egypt: ‘Why is he comparing her to a summer’s day?’
• 5 Argentina: ‘Learning the language will never end’
• 6 Turkey: ‘I’m better than these guys’
• 7 Ukraine: ‘I know how my people think’
• 8 Estonia: ‘Teachers speak better’
• 9 Final Thoughts
• References
• Index