Understanding cultures and cultural understandings: Participation in community activity

1
Understanding cultures and cultural
understandings Participation in community
activity

• Dr. Martin Andrew
• Swinburne University MELBOURNE

2
Overview

• Learning in Community Placement
• An Analogy Communities of Practice
• Extension Imagined Communities
• Applying the Metaphor of Investment
• The Second Metaphor (Second) Language
  Socialisation
• Methodology
• Findings How do students come to know what they
  know?
• Conclusions The structures of cultural and
  self-knowledge

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Introduction Learning in Community Placement

• Focus Kinds of learning ways to knowing (how)
• Community placements context-rich participative
  opportunities to acquire cultural learning
  through a range of ethnographic, cognitive and
  situated actions
• safe and realistic situated environment
• passionate and engaged acting people
• properties of cognitive communities of practice
  
• cultural capital for advanced invested EAL
  learners
• Bourdieus linguistic marketplace treasure

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Learning in Community Placement

• Community Placement
• Curriculum and assessment potential
• Organised opportunity for real, transcultural
  experience
• Defined minimum time commitment
• Chance for participants to attend the regular or
  particular operations premises of an
  established CoP
• Pre-arranged supervisor/ guide/ key member
• Apprenticeship to culture, practice, discourse
  and members

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Learning in Community Placement

• Grounding
• Participative the social turn (Block 2003)
• Cognitive transcultural cognitive
  apprenticeship (Brown, Collins Duguid 1989)
• Social second language socialisation
  perspective/ paradigm not just what, but how L2
  pragmatic ability is acquired (Kasper 2001, 519)
  
• Practical focus on practices helps describe the
  negotiation of socio-cultural knowledge of the
  additional language learner (Zuengler Cole
  2005)
• Agential situates multiple subjectivities
  (Norton 2008) potentially confers agency
  (Manosuthikit 2008, 5)

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Participants

• Scope 70 students, six intakes, three years
• Study status refugees (3) migrants (39),
  international students (19) and study abroad
  students (9)
• Ethnic relation Chinese (37), Taiwanese (4),
  Hong Kongese (3), Swedish (6), Korean (5),
  German (4), Japanese (2), and one each of
  Romanian, Iranian, Ethiopian, Somalian, Thai,
  Malaysian, Indian, French Polynesian and Samoan.
• Sex 42 females and 28 males
• Age range 19 to 55, with a mean of 25.

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Analogy Communities of Practice

• Analogy Entering into joining a community via
  a placement is analogous to becoming apprentice
  and member in a CoP (Lave Wenger 1991)
• Reflectivity Reflective journals capture
  connections between participation and learning
• Elements of communities mutual interdependence,
  sense of belonging, connectedness, spirit, trust,
  interactivity, common expectations, shared values
  and goals and overlapping life histories (Rovai
  2002, 4)
• Wenger 1998 mutual engagement, joint enterprise
  and shared repertoire

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How do we Understand Communities of Practice?

• Placement participants from spectators or
  apprentices with LPP to possession of engaged,
  invested interest involving the whole person
  acting in the world (Lave Wenger 1991, 49)
• Cognitive apprenticeship students acquire,
  develop and use cognitive tools in authentic
  domain activity (Brown et al. 1989, 39)
• Agentiality involves ability to assign
  relevance and significance to things and events
  (Manosuthikit 2008, p. 5)
• LPP investment in situated learning of
  Discourses (Gee 1991)

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How do we Understand Communities of Practice?

• Discourses (Gee 1991)
• ways of behaving, interacting, valuing,
  thinking, believing, speaking, and often reading
  and writing, that are accepted as instantiations
  of particular identities by specific groups
  They are ways of being in the world they are
  forms of life they are socially situated
  identities (161).

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Extending the Analogy Imagined Communities

• Analogy parallel between nationhood (Anderson
  1983) and community membership where we create
  new images of the world and ourselves (Wenger
  1998, 176)
• Desire We feel a sense of community with people
  not yet met and connect through the power of the
  imagination (Kanno Norton 2003, 241)
• Imagined community learners investment in
  their learning as it impacts on future goals,
  ambitions, dream communities desires for
  belonging and recognition

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Applying the Metaphor Investment

• The issue of motivation Investing in
  participation, new discourses and identities
• The framework Investment (Norton 2000, ex
  Bourdieu 1977, 1986, 1991)
• Extending metaphors Brokerage (Pittaway 2004)
  educational, cultural social capital tastes
• Embodied cultural capital external wealth
  converted into an integral part of the person,
  into a habitus (Bourdieu 1986, 244-245)

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Investment In Theory

• Learners invest in and engage with real
  imagined discourse communities and discourse
  identities
• Learners engagement depends on their investments
  in cultural and linguistic learning (McKay Wong
  1996 Norton 2000, 2001 Pittaway 2004)
• Socialisation As learners become more adept at
  community practices, they increase their
  responsibility in the community and become more
  active participants (Kanno Norton 2003, 242).

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The Second Metaphor (Second) Language
Socialisation

• Second Language Socialisation (Theory? Paradigm?)
  
• real-world participative activities involving EAL
  learners
• attends to the social, cultural and
  interactional contexts in which education and
  other kinds of knowledge are learned, both
  formally and informally (Duff 2008, i)
• refers to the process by which novices or
  newcomers in a community or culture gain
  communicative competence, membership and
  legitimacy in the group (Duff 2007, 310)

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(Second) Language Socialisation

• Interaction is crucial for L2 learning (Pavlenko
  2002, 286)
• Learners are actively engaged in constructing
  the terms and conditions of their own learning
  (Lantolf and Pavlenko 2001, 145).
• How do learners involved in community placement
  construct such terms and conditions?
• Does learning via SLS occur informally, as
  Zuengler Cole (2005) suggest (311)?
• You cannot overtly each anyone a Discourse, in a
  classroom or anywhere else (Gee 1991, 171)

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Language Socialisation/Culture Socialisation

• Bridging a connection between a classroom
  learning event and an event in the real world
  the Anzac biscuit
• Practicing language from classroom the rest home
  offer
• Acquiring work skills the CAB

• Contrasting the new and the familiar the elderly
• Focussing surprises (Norton 2000) or points of
  significance, instants when things change
  (Pennycook 2004, 330) the window
• Mediating themselves and their relationships to
  others in communities of practice (Block, 2003,
  109) the Maori tear

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Intercultural Literacy

• The understandings, competencies, attitudes,
  language proficiencies, participation and
  identities necessary for successful
  cross-cultural engagement (Heyward 2002, p. 10)
• Heywards Stages of Culture Shock
• Monocultural levels 1 to 3 (consciously and
  unconsciously incompetent)
• Crosscultural level (conscious competence)
• Intercultural level (unconscious competence)

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Methodology

• Bricolage essentially grounded research
  approach, informed by discourse analysis,
  autoethnographic methods and narrative study
• Student as (auto)ethnographer
• Method to analyse reflective and evaluative
  insights and thick description snapshots of
  real learner experience

• Students
• take course
• comment on any aspects of language,
  communication, socialisation, organisation or
  attitude that seemed Kiwi
• participate write 4 reflective entries
• Researchers
• analyse categorise recurrences in the dataset
  (Strauss Corbin, 1990)
• compare cross-reference (e-text)
• consult supervisors

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Methodology

• Diaries give the language teacher access to
  information about the learners opportunities to
  practice the target language in the wider
  community, their investments in the target
  language and their changing identities
• (Norton 2000, 152)

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Findings What do invested learners come to know
in community placements?

• Andrew Kearney 2007
• applied speaking skills
• acquiring procedural knowledge
• self-confidence in new contexts
• applied classroom knowledge
• surprises and re-cognitions

• recognising difference and cultural contrasts
• ability to describe socio-pragmatic events
• realisations about other-accented speakers and
  their struggles
• observing the symbols of culture,
• recognition of desire for future communities

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What they come to know

• Metaphors of capital
• Being surprised by the extent, depth and
  reality of their learning in community
• Really touching New Zealand culture
• gaining a window into New Zealand culture
• Wading in increased depth
• Gaining great rewards and cultural treasures
• Acquiring a clear vision all measures of
  invested capital.
• Getting concrete learning

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Findings How do students come to know what they
know?

• Themes
• Participating develops multiliteracies and
  encourages skills learning
• Observing leads to reappraisal of what you know
• Applying language acquired elsewhere secures
  learning
• Negotiating lexical awareness occurs via cultural
  socialisation
• Reflecting enables cognitive contrasting

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Participating develops multiliteracies and
encourages skills learning

• Finding 32 learners report additional and
  incidental skills they learned how to do
• Zheng management skills and services skill,
  because the employees need to provide a fast,
  friendly and courteous experience and very
  important rule keep smile all the time in front
  of your customers.
• Beth the needs and characteristics of elderly
  people and how to handle and emergency
• Radha how children learn by self-discovery
  and how important it is for parents to talk
  about their childrens progress
• Karen I was informed to behave strictly
  according to the Volunteer Behaviour Code, which
  is a list of Dos and DONTs

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Observing leads to reappraisal of what you know

• Finding 47 students describe a-ha surprises
• Walt Its only when you interact with Kiwis and
  see what they have to say that you really feel
  their pain. Some men just did not want to talk
  about the game at all till about two weeks
  after.
• Dora One elderly dipped her Anzac biscuit in
  her tea and she was shaking. I could see a tear
  in her eye.
• Harry Before I came to NZ, I always thought
  that Kiwis must be very lazy because NZ has a
  complete welfare system. After entering
  companys name, I found that the thinking is
  absolutely wrong. On the contrary, Kiwis are very
  industrial (sic) people.

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Applying language acquired elsewhere secures
learning

• Finding 56 made a bridge from the classroom
• Shirley Besides learning English in the class,
  we should go out and experience real English so
  we can build up our confidence gradually (Im
  sorry. I didnt catch you. Could you say that
  again, please?)
• Rebecca By working in the rest home I can get
  a chance to interact with people by the use of
  knowledge and strategies which I have learned
  from class.
• Anna Communication opens doors, and helps me to
  leave a positive impression.

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Negotiating lexical awareness occurs via
cultural socialisation

• Finding all students learn lexis agentially
• Dany The first time I heard clear skin I had no
  idea about the meaning, but when they put it into
  sentences such as if youd like to be a police
  officer, you need to have clear skin
• Shirley seeing eye dog out of the blue
• Les what a hoon!
• Sophia tapu Karen whare ka
• Andy one shot of Black coffee plus half trim
  milk plus half full blend milk

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Negotiating lexical awareness occurs via
cultural socialisation

• John I am worthless at chess
• You mean useless
• John During my community placement I found
  myself in situations where I couldnt find the
  words and expressions I was looking for, but I
  managed to explain what I meant anyway. To talk
  around words you dont have in your vocabulary is
  a very effective method

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Reflecting enables cognitive contrasting

• Finding 50 learners acquire learning about Kiwi
  ways by reflecting on contrast with their culture
• Les In China, if someone saw you go to ask
  for a food parcel, you will be looked down upon
  by others
• Harry Here, the culture is totally different.
  The company never deducts staffs payments, and
  the management didnt even punish any staff when
  their mistakes had caused hundreds of thousands
  of dollars lost
• Mohammad A Christian woman was leading the
  prayer whereas this kind of leading prayer by
  women is forbidden in Islam. We Muslims believe
  that our lord Allah will punish us or curse us
  if women leading the prayer to men

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Conclusions

• Community placement
• creates me a good opportunity to integrate with
  other culture (to) minimize the
  misunderstanding between cultures and religions
  (Mohammad)
• is this unforgettable life experience (Dana)
• really is an extension of our in-class learning
  (Radha)
• Allows realisation that understanding a culture
  could help me to integrate into a society easily
  (Ivor)

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Conclusions

• The situated learning occurring during community
  placements can be explained by theories around
  communities of practice and imagined community.
• The greater the investment, the greater the
  payoff.
• A successful instance of language socialisation
  stimulates learners to seek out future
  opportunities.
• Learners construct knowledge about the target
  culture and incidental world-knowledge through
  such key interconnected methods as observation
  and reflection, application and usage and
  realisation due to surprise.

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Conclusions and Implications

• Reflecting on what was observed consolidates
  empirical data into knowledge.
• Applying strategies and language from the
  classroom and other contexts helps learners
  construct images of themselves as communicators
  participants.

• To provide a context for language socialisation
  to occur is to offer the learner a linguistic
  marketplace of both high investment and,
  potentially, high returns.

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Many thanks for your attention

• Dr. Martin Andrew
• Swinburne University MELBOURNE
• mbandrew_at_swin.edu.au