English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OR LANGUAGE SOCIALISATION? 119socio-cultural knowledge. Rather, it is a question of the struggle over mean<strong>in</strong>g at manylevels. Any item produced by either side may lack stability and create new and confus<strong>in</strong>g<strong>Context</strong>s. But there is also the struggle over mean<strong>in</strong>g at a more macro socio-political level.Here it is a question of what counts as mean<strong>in</strong>g. What does the gatekeeper have the right toknow? What counts as adequate and relevant evidence? On what basis will the applicantbe judged? What does ‘understand<strong>in</strong>g’ the other’s <strong>in</strong>tent mean <strong>in</strong> these contexts? Theuncerta<strong>in</strong>ty that <strong>in</strong>hab<strong>its</strong> these <strong>in</strong>teractions is rapidly converted <strong>in</strong>to the certa<strong>in</strong>ty of fixedjudgements and positions after the event s<strong>in</strong>ce it is the gatekeeper who, as representativeof a major social <strong>in</strong>stitution, controls the way <strong>in</strong> which reality is represented and contributesto the dom<strong>in</strong>ant discourses about m<strong>in</strong>ority identities. And despite the respectful <strong>in</strong>tcrpersonalconduct of the gatekeeper, m<strong>in</strong>ority workers, as I <strong>in</strong>dicated above <strong>in</strong> the case ofAbdelmalek, are aware of the racism of the dom<strong>in</strong>ant group and this is likely to affect anyorthodox process of socialisation. Abdelmalek may be develop<strong>in</strong>g a Competence <strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>terpret<strong>in</strong>g change of topic cues and even <strong>in</strong> understand<strong>in</strong>g the goals of such counsell<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>terviews. But the develop<strong>in</strong>g competence that results from such socio-cultural knowledgemay be matched by ambiguity, anomaly or resistance. <strong>Social</strong>isation assumes a sense of‘belong<strong>in</strong>g’ <strong>in</strong> a new community and yet the <strong>in</strong>stitutions where language socialisation cantake place represent what is different, ‘other’, cven hostile and discrim<strong>in</strong>atory.The <strong>in</strong>stability of mean<strong>in</strong>g and the contestation over mean<strong>in</strong>g create a complex set ofsocial conditions with<strong>in</strong> which there is the potential for communicative and material successor not and the potential for language socialisation and the read<strong>in</strong>ess for it ~ or not. Giventhe wider discourses that circulate about ethnic m<strong>in</strong>orities, each <strong>in</strong>tercultural <strong>in</strong>teractioncan both produce relatively adverse conditions for language learn<strong>in</strong>g and can feed <strong>in</strong>to thescwider discourses each time a misunderstand<strong>in</strong>g rema<strong>in</strong>s unresolved.Some methodological implicationsThe connection between micro and macro <strong>in</strong> redef<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the doma<strong>in</strong> of SLA has methodologicalas well as theoretical implications. As several examples <strong>in</strong> this paper have shown,analysis of text, us<strong>in</strong>g a CA and <strong>in</strong>teractional sociol<strong>in</strong>guistic approach, is essential <strong>in</strong>understand<strong>in</strong>g the sequential order<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>in</strong>teraction but it needs to be complemented byethnographic methods. Whereas CA is concerned with the general procedures employedby members <strong>in</strong> accomplish<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>teraction, a mcthod that will help analysts draw conclusionsabout onl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong>ferenc<strong>in</strong>g is also needed. In <strong>in</strong>tercultural communication, the analyst needsto participate <strong>in</strong> the everyday rout<strong>in</strong>es of a particular group <strong>in</strong> order to undcrstandconventionaliscd ways of <strong>in</strong>terpret<strong>in</strong>g mean<strong>in</strong>g.Ethnographic methods are also needed to understand <strong>in</strong>teractants’ subjectivity (Bremeret al., 1996; Gumperz, 1982b; Pierce, 1995). Ethnographic <strong>in</strong>terviews and regular participation<strong>in</strong> the lives of a particular subgroup contribute to the analysts’ understand<strong>in</strong>g ofhow m<strong>in</strong>ority workers are positioned <strong>in</strong> encounters with the majority and the long-termeffect of this on <strong>in</strong>dividual motivation, personal and social <strong>in</strong>vestment and the constructionof social identities withn the relations of dom<strong>in</strong>ation that characterise a multil<strong>in</strong>gual society.ConclusionBy look<strong>in</strong>g at the environment with<strong>in</strong> which a particular group of people arc expected todevelop communicative competence ~ m<strong>in</strong>ority workers <strong>in</strong> a stratified multil<strong>in</strong>gual society