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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130 MICHAEL P. BREENThe outside observer has access to the compromise which results, but we would be naiveto deduce that such a compromise represents what is actually <strong>in</strong>tended or perceived as thesocial reality for any one person <strong>in</strong> the class.The culture of the classroom is collectiveThe culture of the classroom represents a tension between the <strong>in</strong>ternal world of the<strong>in</strong>dividual and the social world of the group, a recurrent juxtaposition of personal learn<strong>in</strong>gexperiences and communal teach<strong>in</strong>g- learn<strong>in</strong>g activities and conventions. The culture of theclass has a psychological reality, a m<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>its</strong> own, which emerges from this juxtaposition.The psyche of the group ~ the group’s values, mean<strong>in</strong>gs, and volitions - is a dist<strong>in</strong>ct entityother than the sum of the <strong>in</strong>dividual psychological orientations of teacher and learners.<strong>Social</strong>ly, the sometimes ritualised and sometimes overtly dynamic behaviour of the groupwill both conta<strong>in</strong> and <strong>in</strong>fluence the behaviour of the <strong>in</strong>dividual just as the overt contributionsof a teacher or a learner will fit, or divert the work<strong>in</strong>gs of the class. But this social frameworkbuilds upon and constructs a particular world which has to be accommodated as a po<strong>in</strong>t ofdeparture for psychological change. A teacher and a learner have to discover that def<strong>in</strong>itionof situation which seems to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> the group and <strong>its</strong> activities ~ that def<strong>in</strong>ition of situationwhich will be relatively dist<strong>in</strong>ct from their personal def<strong>in</strong>itions. This <strong>in</strong>volves all membersof the group <strong>in</strong> empathis<strong>in</strong>g with the roles and views of others and cont<strong>in</strong>ually check<strong>in</strong>gsuch external frames of reference. The <strong>in</strong>dividual has to adapt his learn<strong>in</strong>g process to thesocial-psychological resources of the group. So also the group’s psychic and social processwill unfold from the <strong>in</strong>dividual contributions of a learner.This <strong>in</strong>terplay between <strong>in</strong>dividualand collective consciousness (and the values, beliefs, and attitudes it generates) implies thatthe researcher should be wary of credit<strong>in</strong>g the classroom with powers separable from what<strong>in</strong>dividual learners actually make classrooms do for them, and similarly wary of credit<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>dividual learners with powers separable from what the claysroom group provides. An<strong>in</strong>dividual learner <strong>in</strong> a classroom is engaged <strong>in</strong> both an <strong>in</strong>dividual learn<strong>in</strong>g process and agroup teach<strong>in</strong>g-learn<strong>in</strong>g process. Therefore <strong>in</strong>dividual psychological change will cont<strong>in</strong>uallyrelate to group psychological forces.The researcher is obliged to discover these two worldsbecause they are dist<strong>in</strong>ctive. To <strong>in</strong>fir <strong>in</strong>dividual learn<strong>in</strong>g process from classroom process orvice versa will lead to a partial understand<strong>in</strong>g of classroom language learn<strong>in</strong>g. We need toexplore both and how they relate one to the other.The culture of the classroom is high’y normativeOur membership <strong>in</strong> any culture implies that our behaviour will be evaluated aga<strong>in</strong>st certa<strong>in</strong>norms and conventions ~ membership entails show<strong>in</strong>g we belong. However, <strong>in</strong> all our lives,classrooms are very special <strong>in</strong> this regard. Schools and classrooms are among the ma<strong>in</strong>agencies for secondary socialisation and, as the first public <strong>in</strong>stitution most of us enter dur<strong>in</strong>gour lives, our views of classrooms will be significantly colourcd by this <strong>in</strong>itial experience.More importantly, our personal identities as learners with<strong>in</strong> a group derive much from suchexperience. This is due to the fact that our public learn<strong>in</strong>g selves have been moulded by acont<strong>in</strong>ual and explicit evaluation of our worth as learners. When a language learner enters aclassroom, he anticipates that the evaluation of him as a learner is go<strong>in</strong>g to be a crucial partof that experience. This implies that the search for cxternal criteria for success <strong>in</strong> cop<strong>in</strong>gwith language learn<strong>in</strong>g and, less optimistically perhaps, the day-to-day search for ways ofreduc<strong>in</strong>g the potential threat of negative judgements of one’s capabilities will imp<strong>in</strong>ge uponwhatever <strong>in</strong>ternal criteria a learner may evolve regard<strong>in</strong>g his own learn<strong>in</strong>g progress.