Flow and Situated Learning in CALL Research

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Flow and Situated Learning in CALL Research

• Xiaofei Lu
• APLNG 588
• November 29, 2007

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Flow as a model for CALL Research

• Defining flow
• Overview
• Previous research
• Methods
• Issues
• Conclusion

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Defining flow

• SchMooze University
• What is flow
• The exhilarating feeling of great fun, intense
  focus, and proud accomplishment that we
  experienced while working in the MOO (Egbert
  2005130)
• A psychological state leading to optimal
  experience (Csikszentmihalyi 1989, etc.)
• Being in the zone (Michael Jordan)
• Having the touch (teenagers)
• When everything gells (teachers)

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Overview

• Flow theory and research
• Flow contributes to optimal performance
  learning
• Experienced by members of all societies
  cultures
• Content structure of activities supporting flow
  differ across cultures
• Message potential for more effective LL

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Model of flow in LL

• Interplay of many variables (Fig. 10.1, p131)
• TL task
• Psychological state called flow
• Learners skills in TL and tools
• Improved performance

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Dimensions of flow

• A balance between challenge and skills
• High vs. low challenge/skills
• Anxiety, flow, and boredom
• Reading texts induce flow if neither boring nor
  frustrating (McQuillan Conde 1996)
• Activities with no challenge skill requirement
  induce flow for Thai ESL students (Schmidt
  Savage 1992)

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Dimensions of flow (contd)

• User perception that attention focused on task
• Attention in flow theory intense concentration
  and unconscious action
• Noticing in SLA theory conscious attention to
  form
• Focus facilitates flow while reading for
  enjoyment and reading texts in narrative form
  (MC 1996)
• Microflow short, intense experiences due to
  constant interruptions

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Dimensions of flow (contd)

• User finds task interesting or authentic
• Some stress important to create flow
• LA occurs effectively with no perceived threat
• User perceiving a sense of control
• Learner control and autonomy important for flow
• Learner control also important for LA

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CALL tasks

• Tasks generate different flow experiences
• Mooing linked to Csikszentmihalyis theory
• L2 reading (Trevino Webster 1992)
• Computer tasks (Ghani Deshpande 1994)
• Include tasks that are flow inducing
• Nonjudgmental, immediate feedback
• Web surfing (Chan Repman 1999)
• Asynchronous e-mail exchanges (TW 1992)

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Previous research on flow in LL

• Schmidt Savage (1992) Thai EFL students
• Challenge/skill balance and flow
• Flow occurs both within and outside of class
• Schmidt et al. (1996) Egyptian EFL learners
• Learners experienced flow during learning tasks
• Egbert (2003) Flow in Spanish classroom if
• Learners had more control
• Learners presented with new situations for
  learning
• Learner interests addressed

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Methods

• Data sources
• Participant-recall surveys
• Experience sampling method (ESM)
• alerting device randomly prompts participants
• 35-item questionnaire on psychological state
• Single data source problematic
• Egbert (2003)
• Surveys, interviews
• Document collection, observation tools

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Methods (contd)

• Methodologies
• Qualitative or quantitative
• Mixed-method studies
• Methods should suit the answers sought
• In what educational contexts might flow occur
• How do members of different cultures experience
  flow?
• Do the dimensions of flow change with extensive
  computer use?
• What is the effect of flow on LL outcomes?

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Issues

• Data sources and methods
• Systemic and analytic investigations
• Barriers to flow common in language classrooms
• Lack of TL competence
• Lack of choices or immediate feedback
• Unfamiliarity with writing and keyboarding
  systems
• Pressure to perform well in class
• Performance of multiple tasks during classroom

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Conclusion

• A way of conceptualizing and evaluating tasks and
  environments
• Facilitates understanding of LLT processes
• Flow exists in language classrooms
• Effect of flow on LL not fully explained
• More research on
• Contextual conditions affecting psychological
  states
• Effect of these states on LL outcomes

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Situated learning as a framework for CALL research

• The story of Jeff
• Overview
• Previous research
• Method
• Future directions and issues
• Conclusion

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Overview

• Situated learning as a learning theory
• Major contributors Lave Wenger
• Influenced by Vygotskys sociocultural theory
• Lave Wenger (1991)
• Knowledge is co-constructed in the mind and world
• Learning is an integral part of generative social
  practice in the world
• Social world, person, learning content, and
  activity

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Social world and person

• Social world
• Social, historical and cultural context of
  learning
• Comprises person, learning content their
  relations
• Person
• A practitioner in a community of people
• Interactions change individuals community
  discourse
• Changes help develop individual identities

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Learning content and activity

• Learning content
• A persons experience, located in
• Practitioner relations and practices
• Social organization and political economy of
  communities of practice
• Associated with growth transformation of
  individual identities
• Activity
• Legitimate peripheral participation in
  communities of practice

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Legitimate peripheral participation

• Peripheral participation
• The peripheral role of the person in a community
• Relative positions of peripheral/full
  participants
• LPP process whereby learner becomes FP
• Through creating goals, experiencing situations,
  observations, interactions, community engagements
• Involves reproduction, transformation change in
  participation form participant identity

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Community of practice

• COP in situated learning theory
• A set of relations among persons, activity and
  world
• Over time and in relation with other COP
• COP of language learners
• ESL teachers, students, NSs, classes
• Values, perspectives, and beliefs of members
• Member interactions and relations
• Available resources

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Community of practice (contd)

• Participants with different experiences
• Power shapes interaction and learner
  participation
• These in turn influence learner identity, meaning
  and practice
• Understanding how learning takes place as an act
  of membership
• Understanding the whole person in the process of
  social practice
• Understanding how LPP takes places within the
  context of the four key elements

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Implications for CALL research

• Examine CALL from social, historical, and
  cultural perspectives
• Learning in its social setting
• Explore social structures of community of
  language practitioners in CALL environments
• Learning a social practice happening through LPP
• Power and identity relationships among learners
  inside/outside classroom, online/offline?
• How learners develop an identity and participate
  in the social structure

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Implications for CALL research

• View identity change in LPP as reconstruction,
  reproduction, and transformation
• Learning is a process, not a state
• Understand issues, strategies, and meaning
  negotiations during process of identity change
• Evolution and end result of learning
• Becoming a FP through LPP transforms identity
• End result for L2 learners participating in CALL
  activities (language, Netspeak, cultural values)?

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Implications for CALL research

• Think about COP for students using CALL
• Learners engage in multiple COP simultaneously
• How does the computer media community interact
  with L1 and L2 communities?
• Overlap between online and offline identities?

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Warschauer (1999)

• Longitudinal study of Internet use in language
  writing classes
• Sociocultural context of the institute influences
• Design of CALL activities activity itself
• L2 learners in CALL environment
• LLP among members in/outside classrooms
• Factors affecting LPP
• Learner decisions and consequences of decisions

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Belz (2002)

• How the LL process is shaped by
• Social dimensions of American German
  telecollaboration
• Learners themselves
• Conflicting understandings of what it means to be
  a member of a learning community
• Importance of sociocultural context in regard to
  activity, learner, and learning experience

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Method

• A critical approach to learning
• Explore changes in learner participation
  relations
• Helps visualize struggles between social forces
• Exploring CALL through LPP
• Interviews, intense observation, communication
  documentation
• In-depth narratives on changes and their
  influences
• Descriptive statistics may also help

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Future directions

• Relations between social/historical/cultural
  context design/use/ nature of or learner
  engagement in CALL
• Social structures of community of language
  practitioners in a CALL environment
• Results of LPP for L2 learners in CALL
  environments
• COP L2 learners participating in CALL activities
  belong to

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Issues

• Situated learning is a work-in-progress theory
• Length of data collection can be problematic
• Participation of peripheral learners can be
  invisible in a virtual COP

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Conclusion

• A theory of learning focusing on
• Contexts of practice, participation in social
  practice, the learner, and the learning content
• Interactions between these elements
• Understanding development of language as social
  practice within a CALL context
• LPP the complexity of the social practice
  process
• Power relationships between learners
• Identity transformation and its consequences
• Learning experience