English Language Teaching in its Social Context

316 MICHAEL P. BREENto earlier features of their interlanguage precisely in order to signal that they me learners,Learners may undertake a kind of impression management in their discursive practiceswhich publicly expresses their own construction of themselves as learners and theirconstruction of whom they interact with. Therefore, variations in how learners participatein the text of lessons will also be a reflection of their self assessment and their assessmentof both the teacher’s language and the teacher’s likely reactions to their own production. Itseems that some learners’ perceptions of the established social relationships in someclassrooms may actually encourage them to underachieve.What learners learn from the discourse of lessonsThe foregoing review of classroom language learning research has illustrated some of theways in which the interaction between the lcarner and the target language data is situatedwithin social action. In order to summarise what we know of the discursive practices oflearners in the language classroom, we can see that learners are obliged to participate overtlyand covertly in the discourse of lessons in the following ways:Adopt a responsive role in relation to the teacher’s management of the discoursethrough his/her control over the text of lessons.Be alert to and adapt to the varying inter-textuality of lessons.Act individually in responsc to discursive pressure within teacher-learner interactionand within tasks and activities during lessons.Covertly exploit others’ participation in classroom discourse as Opportunities to serveown purposes and learning agenda.Navigate the discourse of the classroom its specific text, discursive requirements,and particular social practices with direct referencc to personal costs and benefits.Define the situation on the basis of past experience and present understanding of theemerging culture of the classroom group antl act in ways that are seen as appropriateto that culture.Participate with the teacher antl other learners in the ongoing construction of lessonsand the maintenance of fairly predictable classroom routines and procedures.Manage the presentation of self through the discourse according to one’s owndefinition of both self identity and the demands of the situation.In general, therefore, a learner who is a successful discursive practitioner in theclassroom appears to be someone who avoids risks to self identity in the group andcontributes in ways that seem appropriate to the group culture whilst exploiting discoursalopportunities for their own learning. The question I raised at the beginning of this chapterwas: Does a learner’s success in language learning in the classroom depend upon the learner’ssuccessful navigation of the opportunities and constraints inherent in the discourse oflessons? Clearly learners will differ in their responses to the kinds of demands that are placedupon them by such discourse and they will differ in terms of their own priorities andcapabilities as discursive practitioners in the specific context of a classroom. I have suggestedthat learners in classrooms will differentially interpret, accommodate, and adopt strategieslargely on the basis of what classroom discourse provides as text, what practices it requiresof teacher and learners, and how it constructs both the knowledge to be learned and theunfolding teaching-learning process through social practice. Learners’ cognitions are framedwithin the prevailing discourse through which they learn and there is good evidence that