English Language Teaching in its Social Context

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING 137apprenticeship for later authentic communication and any use of the new language primarilyserves the learning and teaching of that language, any group of language learners has twosignificant contributions to make to the development of the new language: first, individualprior definitions and experiences of language and communication, of learning, and ofworking in classrooms: second, the capacity to be metalinguistic and metacommunicativc,to talk about, to explore collectively, and to reconstruct jointly language and its use. Thelanguage class has the communicative potential for a dialogue about subjective definitionsof language, how language may be best learned, and how the classroom context may be bestused. The positive and explicit use of the interactive, collective, normative, and jointlyconstructed nature of lessons can be a means to uncovering and sharing what individuallearners and the teacher perceive as significant for them in learning a language together.And what is revealed can, in turn, provide the starting points for later interaction, collectiveendeavour, agreed evaluation, and the joint construction of subsequent lessons. Put simply,a language class may be a place where the underlying culture of that class can be mobilisedand engaged more overtly. I do not have space here to detail the practicalities of mobilisingthe culture of the classroom for language learning, but I would suggest two pedagogicmotivations for such a propo~al.'~ First, a gathering of people in a classroom provides areservoir of prior knowledge and experience -both reflective or abstract and concrete -of language and communicating from which any new knowledge and experience must flow.Second, the teaching-learning process requires decisions to be made, and decision-makinghas high communicative potential. The sharing of decision-making in a language class willgenerate communication which has authentic roots in getting things done here and now.2. How can the culture of the classroom help the teacher to facilitate classroom languagelearning? The culture of the class has the potential to reveal to the teacher the languagelearning process as it is actually experienced. In this way, teaching language and investigatinglanguage learning may be seen to be synonymous. Teachers and learners already undertakeresearch in classrooms, but their joint investigation tends to focus upon subject matter -the new language and its use. An additional focus of investigation could be the languagelearning process as it actually unfolds and as it is directly experienced in the class. Manyteachers and learners already undertake such action research, but it is sometimes ratherimplicit and accorded little space and significance. I am suggesting her- that genuineclassroom language learning research may progress to the extent that those people who arcimmediately involved in its everyday realities also become explicitly engaged in a methodicalreflection upon their own learning and teaching. The pedagogic motivation would be thatteacher-learner research has the potential to facilitate a delicate understanding andrefinement of language development within the classroom itself. If this pedagogic purposemay be seen as valuable, then the researcher can offer knowledge and skills to a classroomrather than act only as a recipient of its riches."Learning within the classroom as cultureI have briefly argued for the explicit use of shared decision making and for teacher-learnerresearch in the language class because both seem to me pedagogically appropriate withinclassrooms devoted to the discovery and development of a new language and its use. However,both proposals derive from considering the potential of the culture of the classroomforlanguage teaching. Both also derive from the wish to bring research in language learningand the classroom experience of language learning closer together. The research approachsuggested earlier requires participating investigators and longitudinal involvement (at least),