The Ecology of Language Learning

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The Ecology of Language Learning Classroom
ResearchLeo van LierMonterey Institute of
International Studieslvanlier_at_miis.edu

• UNTELE, Compiègne
• March 19, 2004

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Perception/Action Affordance
Emergence Grammaring
e
Social Interaction
Quality
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Overview

• Perception and action in semiotic contexts
• The emergence of language abilities in meaningful
  activity
• The dynamics of social interaction
• The quality of educational experience

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Perception

• Picture or landscape?
• Static observer or dynamic agent?
• Representation or pickup?
• Direct or indirect?
• Immediate or mediated?

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What are affordances?
Affordances are relations of possibility between
animals and their environments (Neisser, 1987, p.
21).
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What are affordances?
Affordances consist in the opportunities for
interaction that things in the environment
possess relative to the sensorimotor capacities
of the animal (Varela, Thompson Rosch, 1991, p.
203).
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What are affordances?
The linguistic world is full of demands and
requirements, opportunities and limitations,
rejections and invitations, enablements and
constraints - in short, affordances (Shotter and
Newson 198234)
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What are affordances?
We could benefit from considering participants'
orientations to the production and recognition of
structural patterns in talk as social
affordances immediately recognizable
projections, predictions and perceived
consequences of making this (and not that)
utterance at any given time (Forrester, 1999, p.
88).
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Gibsons affordance

• An affordance refers to the fit between an
  animals capabilities and the environmental
  supports and opportunities (both good and bad)
  that make possible a given activity (Gibson
  Pick, 2000, p. 15).
• According to Gibson, to perceive the world is to
  co-perceive oneself. This means that when we
  perceive something, we perceive it as it relates
  to us.

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Environment (meaning potential)
Action
affordance
Perception
Interpretation
Agent, Self (abilities, interests)
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Overview

• Perception and action in semiotic contexts
• The emergence of language abilities in meaningful
  activity
• The dynamics of social interaction
• The quality of educational experience

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Emergence
Emergence happens when relatively simple
organisms or elements reorganize themselves into
more complex, more intelligent systems. In
addition, these systems appear to be able to
adapt to changing conditions whereas the simpler
forms that compose them have no such adaptive
abilities (van Lier, in press Johnson, 2001).
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Emergence
In the emergentist perspective, grammar is not a
prerequisite of communication, rather it is a
byproduct of communication (Hopper, 1998).
Regularity and systematicity are produced by the
partial settling or sedimentation of frequently
used forms into temporary subsystems (Hopper,
ibid, p. 158).
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Overview

• Perception and action in semiotic contexts
• The emergence of language abilities in meaningful
  activity
• The dynamics of social interaction
• The quality of educational experience

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Social Interaction

• Primary intersubjectivity face-to-face
  proto-conversations, felt immediacy.
• Secondary intersubjectivity joint attention,
  aboutness, indicational.
• Tertiary intersubjectivity grammaticalization,
  predicational.

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Scaffolding
The game consists of an initial contact, the
establishment of joint attention, disappearance,
reappearance, and acknowledgement of renewed
contact. These obligatory features or the
syntax of the game occur together with optional
features, such as vocalizations to sustain the
infants interest, responses to the infants
attempts to uncover the mothers face, etc. These
non-rule bound parts of the game are an
instance of the mother providing a scaffold for
the child (Bruner Sherwood, 1975, p. 280).
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Prolepsis
The mind projects its mature psychological
capacities onto the earlier stages of its
development We see the higher mental functions
in the infants behaviour even when they are not
yet present.. treating children as if they had
abilities they do not yet possess is a necessary
condition of the development of those abilities
(Bakhurst, 1991, p.67).
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Scaffolding

• Continuity task sequences, ritual with variation
• Contextual Support supportive environment,
  guidance and structure, facilitated access
• Intersubjectivity engagement, encouragement
• Contingency contributions oriented towards one
  another
• Handover/Takeover increasing role for learner
• Flow balance between skills and challenges
• (van Lier, in press)

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Scaffolding on Three Time Scales

• Macro Planning (a syllabus, a chain of tasks, a
  project, etc.) over a long-term period
• Meso Planning the steps of a particular activity
  or task
• Micro Moment-to moment interactional work

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zone of proximal development
self regulation
Intra-personalprocess
inter-personalprocess
Leo van Lier, 1996 Based on L.S. Vygotsky
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An Expanded ZPD
Scaffolding Modeling
Resourcefulness, Self-access
Docendo discimus (We learn by teaching)
Van Lier, 2003
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SCAFFOL-DING
PROLEPSIS
ZPD
PROXIMAL CONTEXT
EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING
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Overview

• Perception and action in semiotic contexts
• The emergence of language abilities in meaningful
  activity
• The dynamics of social interaction
• The quality of educational experience

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Quality

• Standards do not equal quality
• Quality cannot be measured by test scores
• Indicators of educational quality cannot be
  quantified
• Interventionist and contextualized types of
  research are important
• Education must promote creativity, variety and
  diversity

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Effective Functioning

• differentiated perception and response
• directing and controlling ones own behavior
• coping successfully under stress
• acquiring new knowledge and skill
• establishing and maintaining mutually rewarding
  relationships
• modifying and constructing ones own physical,
  social, and symbolic environment
• (Bronfenbrenner Ceci, 1994, p. 569).