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 FOR TEACHING A LANGUAGE 2554I have described the process of tcach<strong>in</strong>g-and-learn<strong>in</strong>g as ‘the guided construction ofknowledge’ (Mercer, 1995).This is a process which is carried on over time, so that,as the language researcher Janet Mayb<strong>in</strong> (1 994) has put it, the talk on any occasionbetween a teachcr and their regular class of students can be considered part of the‘long conversation’ of their relationship. <strong>Language</strong> is a tool for build<strong>in</strong>g the future outof the past: the mean<strong>in</strong>gfulness of current and future jo<strong>in</strong>t activitics of teachers andlearners depends on the foundations of their common knowledge (Merccr, 2000).Classroom <strong>in</strong>teruction follows implicit ‘ground rules’. The socio-cultural perspectiveemphasises that evcryday human activity depends heavily on participants be<strong>in</strong>g ableto draw on a considerable body of shared knowledge and understand<strong>in</strong>g, based ontheir past shared experience or similar histories of experience. The conventions or‘ground rules’ which ensure that speakers and listeners, writers and readers areoperat<strong>in</strong>g with<strong>in</strong> the same genres of language are rarely made explicit, but so long asparticipants can safely assume shared knowledge, the language of everyday <strong>in</strong>teractionfollows <strong>its</strong> conventional patterns. If the contextual foundations of shared knowledgeare lack<strong>in</strong>g - such as when students’ home backgrounds have not prepared them wellfor mak<strong>in</strong>g sense of the language and culture of the classroom - misunderstand<strong>in</strong>gsmay easily arise and persist unresolved (Heath, 1983; LoCastro, 1997). Mak<strong>in</strong>g the‘ground rules’ of classroom activity explicit can help overcome misunderstand<strong>in</strong>gsand mis<strong>in</strong>terpretations, and there is grow<strong>in</strong>g evidence that students’ progress issignificantly enhanced if teachers do so (Christie, 1990; Mercer, Wegerif and Dawcs1999).ConclusionRecord<strong>in</strong>gs and transcriptions of classroom talk, analysed from a socio-cultural perspective,offer us glimpses of the social, cultural, communicative process of education be<strong>in</strong>g pursuedand, with vary<strong>in</strong>g degrees of success, accomplished. They may capture illustrations of thebest practice, <strong>in</strong> which teachers enable students to achieve levels of understand<strong>in</strong>g whichmight never, or at least not nearly so quickly, have been achieved without a ‘scaffold<strong>in</strong>g’guidance; they as often reveal misunderstand<strong>in</strong>gs be<strong>in</strong>g generated, and opportunities forguided development be<strong>in</strong>g squandered. As teachers, as well as researchers, we can learnmuch from what they reveal. It is of course unrealistic to expect any busy teacher to monitorand evaluate every <strong>in</strong>teraction <strong>in</strong> their classroom; but recent research (<strong>in</strong> arcas of thecurriculum other than language teach<strong>in</strong>g) has shown that through a better understand<strong>in</strong>gof the use of language as a pedagogic tool, teachers can help students improve theircurriculum-related learn<strong>in</strong>g and their use of language as a tool for construct<strong>in</strong>g knowledge.(Brown and Pal<strong>in</strong>csar, 1989; Wcgerif, Rojas-Drummond and Mercer, 1999; Mercer, Wegerifand Dawes, 1999.) A socio-cultural perspcctive has only quitc recently been brought tobear on teach<strong>in</strong>g and learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the modern language classroom (sec Chapters 5, 16 and19 of this book, by Van Lier, Gibbons and Breen), but I am conv<strong>in</strong>ced that <strong>its</strong> applicationwill have significant practical implications for this field of educational endeavour.ReferencesArthur, J. (1992) ‘<strong>English</strong> <strong>in</strong> Botswana classrooms: functions and constra<strong>in</strong>ts’. Centre f.r<strong>Language</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Social</strong> Lfe Work<strong>in</strong>g %pus No.46. University of Lancaster, U.K.