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Context, Culture and Construction:Research Implications of Theory Formation

in Foreign Language Methodology

By: Amirhamid Forough Ameriahfameri@gmail.com

Michael Byram Michael Wendt May 2016

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Introduction

Language is learnt in context.

A constructivist theory of context includes both internal and external realities research methods are needed which can investigate the ways in which mental

processes turn reality into contexts.

Traditional research paradigms that rely on concepts of objectivity are unable to deal with this theory and qualitative research methods are also needed.

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Purpose of This Article

To consider to what extent constructivist epistemology provides a solution for achieving a link between qualitative-ethnographic and cognitivist research on FL acquisition.

Assumptions: institutional learning contexts have become more flexible and the focus has shifted from the teaching to the learner and his mental processes.

Epistemological constructivism explains perception as the construction of meaning in educational and cultural contexts.

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Language Learning Processes and Their Contexts

In the last decades, previously familiar teaching and learning contexts were reorganised to be more

flexible, more complex and more authentic. There has been the requirement for learner orientation and facilitated learning

through action.

Whereas cultural studies, role play, simulation, and intercultural learning were exclusively oriented towards the target context, the individual learners, their contexts and their individual learning processes were also emphasized.

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Language Learning Processes and Their Contexts

Very few experts in teaching methods (Byram, 1994) emphasised that temporary participation in everyday life of the target culture is indispensable for intercultural learning as a process of socialisation.

Research on FL learning should take into account both of these fundamental directions in FL teaching methods.

research on the learning context research on the learning process

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Epistemological ConstructivismLiving in two worlds: External and mental realities

A holistic view of context and mental processes is crucial. Karl Popper’s (1972/1994) three-world-model:

a physical world (World 1) the world of our interpretations, a subjective world of consciousness (World 2) the world containing trivial truths in the realm of logic (World 3)

Constructivists consider ‘reality’ to be a subjective mental construction guiding our actions in the external reality.

Hence, reality is the area in which our mental processes occur.

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Perception is interpretation

Our senses can receive energetic impulses from reality. But the structure of the field of perception in Gestalt-theory terms, differentiation and recognition of similarities, are cognitive abilities.

From a constructivist point of view, meaning is not a perceptible feature of reality, nor of a succession of sounds or written characters.

But we assign meaning to and interpret all objects and circumstances. Therefore, meaning is a quality of the mental world.

Subjective meanings are called ‘connotative’ and those made viable through communication ‘denotative’.

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Context as ‘Cause’

Research on FL learning is affected by the information processing paradigm. reality provides objective information.

contexts are ‘causes’ for interpretations and perceived contexts are always interpreted contexts (products of interpretation).

If the description of the learners’ realities in their cognitive, emotional and physical state is a task of language acquisition research, it has to direct its attention towards the external reality of the learners as interpreted context and towards their mental reality as interpreting context.

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Culture as a Discursive Construct

Two different conceptions of culture: On the one hand, culture is seen as a distinguishable, homogeneous and

objectively describable or ‘essentialist’ system. On the other hand, it is understood as dynamically developing events which are

consequently only seized as momentary perceptions.

Cultures constitute themselves dynamically in discourse.

A discourse-analytical notion of culture would support the distinction between macro contexts (organisations, institutions) and micro contexts.

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Culture as a Discursive Construct

It would also facilitate the notion of the classroom ‘as a culture constituted through the interaction of teachers and learners.’

Furthermore, according to Fairclough’s CDA discourses are always structured hegemonically. How far can communicative power be exercised?

Intercultural learning is seen as a transgression of limits of socialisation into primary communities and a move towards ‘the foreign’.

FL instruction can contribute to this by conveying the understanding that one’s own as well as the foreign culture are constructs (‘construction awareness’).

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The qualitative paradigm and the varieties of reality

Quantitative Methods Quantitative procedures reduce context,

mental realities and cognitive processes to quantifiable data often presented as input/intake to ensure the generalizability of the results

requires the testing of hypotheses, which once formulated must not be changed throughout data collection and analysis

Qualitative Methods The holistic description of concrete

people and specific contexts. the abandoning of typification The acceptance of the uniqueness of the

individual, a constant succession of hypothesis

construction and testing

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Subjectivity and authenticity

The reality of contexts is an external reality interpreted by an observer. This holds true for all participants in the research process. It demands from the researcher the depiction of his/her own reality, which in

turn has to be regarded as an interpretation as well.

From this standpoint, qualitative research appears to be the most extensive analysis of the interpretations of the subjects in the research process.

Both the socio-cultural as well as the individual-mental dimension of language acquisition need to be considered.

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Ethnomethodology and ethnography

Ethnomethodology attempts to reconstruct the explanatory and interpretive patterns of the members of a community and with this their patterns of perception. Meaning, social realities and social orders are produced ‘locally’ and ratified

inter-subjectively. ‘Locally’ refers to the status of contexts.

Qualitative ethnographic research analyses speech, text and non-verbal expressions against the background of cultural structures or it attempts to reveal cultural structures with the help of texts.

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Ethnomethodology and ethnography

Both ethnomethodological as well as qualitative-ethnographic research arefounded on a theoretical concept of information processing which does notdifferentiate between contexts and mental processes, and even ignores the latter. Thus, an additional cognitive dimension is needed.

This is only possible with the joint interpretation of qualitative data obtainable with introspective methods for example, commenting on one’s own pictures or techniques of graphic

representation or with interview techniques.

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Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory

What is called ‘interpretational pattern’ by Hu (2001) is seen here as theindividual and inter-individual construction of meaning. As a consequence, only

the research participants’ interpretations of contexts, the observers’ interpretations of contexts,

their strategies of construction as well as checking viability are ‘real’ in an empirical sense.

Quantitative research seeing itself as ‘objective’ can, therefore, only provide causes or opportunities for qualitative research.

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Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory

Epistemological Constructivism As a Theory of Cognition

confronts research on FL acquisition with the problem of identifying complex mental processes.

Learning and resistance to instruction could receive more viable interpretations from a perspective based on the constructive nature of the cognitive system.

Epistemological Constructivism As a Theory of Semantics

directs the attention of research related to FL learning to the mental constructions of reality.

Topics for research corresponding to this perspective include Concept formation, attitudes, values,

self-assessment, professional concepts, experiential knowledge, subjective theories, etc.

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Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory

From a constructivist point of view, the validity of qualitative research can be presumed if the research process is well-documented so that: all steps are comprehensible; the mental constructions of all individuals engaged in the research process

become clear in the interplay of stating hypotheses and scrutinising their viability in the research process; and

the reader can carry out their own interpretations.

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