English Language Teaching in its Social Context

140 MICHAEL P. BREEN9IO11121314Lewis’s investigations of family life in Mexico (1 959) but with a particular focus upon therelationships between classroom life and language dcvclopment.“Interactive” is becoming a much-used term in language teaching circles and is, thereby,expanded to encompass many assumptions and diverse meanings (as has been the fate of“functional,” “communicative,” “negotiation ,” and, when applied to pedagogy, “natural”).Ambiguity resides in the fact that human interaction can be both interpersonal and intrapersonal;both overtly social and covertly mental. Allwright’s (1 982, 1984a) fruitfulidentification of interactive work as a defining feature of classrooms clearly relates to theinterpersonal. However, interactive work also occurs in the recreative relating of mindto external phenomena (Neisser, 1976). Rut interaction is more comprehensive than(1) overt behaviour between people and (2) covert perception and reconstructionof perceptions and experiences. We also need to regard social interaction as havingpsychological roots and outcomes (Rommetveit 198 1) and mental interaction as beingsubject to social forces (Gauld and Shotter, 1977; Harrk, 1978; Shotter, 1978). Thus,interaction is also (3) a socio-cognitive process which continually relates social actionand experience to the content and capabilities of the mind, and vice versa.Over the past twenty years there have been a number of interesting studies of classroomrelationships and roles within the school system. Jackson’s (1 968) seminal investigationis complemented by Hargreaves (1972) and Woods (1979) - the more recent worksechoing Goffman’s (1 96 1 ) revelations of the effects upon the perceptions and activitiesof people in situations which maintain asymmetrical relationships. Learner experiencesand judgements have been studied by Taylor (1 962), Nash (1 974), Meighan (1 977), andHargreaves (1 977), whilst teacher perspectives are considered by Morrison andMacIntyre (1 969).A well-established tradition within the sociology of knowledge argues that most of ourlearning is socially constructed. Berger and Luckmann’s (1 966) justification of such aview is based upon a phenomenological approach to human experience. (Douglas, 1973,and Luckmann, 1978, offer a range of studies whilst Filmcr, Phillipson, Silverman, andWalsh, 1972, provide an overview.) Perhaps the two major influences upon recentendeavours to relate social experience and knowledge have been Schultz (1 962-66,1967) and Husserl (1 965, 1967). Investigations directly concerned with the jointconstruction of classroom life arc exemplified within Hargreaves (1977), Nash (1 973),Stubbs and Delamont (1 976), Woods and Hammcrslcy (1 977), and Woods (1 980a, b).The eight essential features which I describe are based on my own experience as ateacher and the shared experiences of many teachers from most countries of the worldwith whom I have worked. The features are also influenced by my interpretation of anumber of scholars. Willard Waller’s (1 932) evaluation of the teaching process is still themost comprehensive, whilst the studies of teaching and learning referred to in notes 10and 1 1 provide strong justification for seeing the classroom group as a special culture. (Ahelpful overview of classroom research within general education is provided by Cohenand Manion 198 1 .)Garfinkel asserts the need for methods of understanding the everyday life of the groupwe may be investigating through an cthnomcthodological approach. (Douglas, 1971,Turner 1974, and Douglas, 1973 provide examples of this approach, whilst Hughes,1980, offers a humanistic interpretation of cthnomethodology.) For a broader criticalconsideration of methods of investigation, see Taylor (1 971). Interesting examples ofcurrent research in classroom language learning which adopt various methods ofUnderstanding are found in Dingwall (1 982), Wenden (1 983), Murphy-O’Dwycr(1 983), Allwright (1 984b), and Bonamy, Cherchalli, Johnson, Kubrusly, Schwerdtfeger,Soule-Susbielles (all 1984):In Brccn (l982), I examine the practical realities of classroom language and procedures.