Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:24:27.518Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Social Context for Language Learning—A Neglected Situation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Michael P. Breen
Michael P. Breen
Affiliation:
University of Lancaster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper offers an examination of classroom language learning from the perspectives of research and teaching. It addresses two questions: (1) What are the specific contributions of the classroom to the process of language development?; and (2) In what ways might the teacher exploit the social reality of the classroom as a resource for the teaching of language? The paper explores the classroom as a special social situation and identifies certain aspects of classroom language learning that seem to be neglected by current research. It offers also new directions for research and proposals for language teaching deduced from particular social and psychological characteristics of classroom life.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 135 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allwright, R. L. 1982. Interactive work for input in the language classroom. Keynote paper at the Second Language Research Forum, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Allwright, R. L. 1983. Classroom-centered research on language teaching and learning: A brief historical overview. TESOL Quarterly 17; 191–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allwright, R. L. 1984a. The importance of interaction in classroom language learning. Applied Linguistics 5; 156–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allwright, R. L. 1984b. Making sense of classroom instruction. Presentation at the Symposium on Classroom-centred Research, AILA 7th World Congress, Brussels.Google Scholar
Bailey, K., Long, M. H. and Peck, S. (eds.). 1984. Second language acquisition studies. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Beattie, J. 1964. Other cultures: Aims, methods and achievements in social anthropology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T.. 1966. The social construction of reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bonamy, D. 1984. Perceptions of saliency in a language classroom. Unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Lancaster.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breen, M.P. 1982. Authenticity in the language classroom. Bulletin of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (ACLA) 4: 7–23.Google Scholar
Breen, M.P. 1983. How would we recognise a communicative classroom? In Coffey, B. (ed.), Teacher training and the curriculum, pp. 132–54. London: The British Council.Google Scholar
Breen, M.P. 1984. Process syllabuses for the language classroom. In Brumfit, C. J. (ed.), General English syllabus design, pp. 47–60. Oxford: Pergamon Press/The British Council.Google Scholar
Cherchalli, S. 1984. Asking learners about language learning. Presentation at the Symposium on Classroom Research, University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Cicourel, A. V. 1973. Cognitive sociology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. D. and Hosenfeld, C.. 1981. Some uses of mentalistic data in second language research. Language Learning 31; 285–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. and Manion, L.. 1981. Perspectives on classrooms & schools. London: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Cole, M., Gay, J., Click, J. A. and Sharp, D. W.. 1971. The cultural context of learning & thinking. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Cole, M. and Scribner, S.. 1974. Culture & thought. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dingwall, S. D. 1982. Critical self-reflection and decisions in doing research. In Dingwall, S. D., Mann, S. J. & Katamba, F. X. (eds.), Methods & problems in doing applied linguistic research, pp. 3–26. University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. D. (ed.). 1971. Understanding everyday life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. (ed.). 1973. Rules & meanings. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Færch, C. and Kasper, G. (eds.). 1983. Strategies in interlanguage communication. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Felix, S. W. (ed.). 1980. Second language development: Trends & issues. Tubingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Filmer, P., Phillipson, M., Silverman, D. and Walsh, D.. 1972. New directions in sociological theory. London: Collier Macmillan.Google Scholar
Forgas, J. P. (ed.). 1981. Social cognition. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gaies, S. J. 1983. The investigation of language classroom processes. TESOL Quarterly 17; 205–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R. C. 1979. Social psychological aspects of second language acquisition. In Giles, H. & Clair, R. St. (eds.), Language & social psychology, pp. 193–200. London: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gauld, A. and Shotter, J.. 1977. Human action & its psychological investigation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J. and Levin, H.. 1975. The psychology of reading. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, C. E. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Goffman, C. E. 1961. Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, D. H. 1972. Interpersonal relations & education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, D. H. 1977. The process of typification in classroom interaction. British Journal of Educational Psychology 47; 274–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harré, R. 1978. Accounts, actions and meanings: The practice of participatory psychology. In Brenner, M. et al. (eds.), The social contexts of method, London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Hatch, E. M. (ed.). 1978. Second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Hughes, J. 1980. The philosophy of social research. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 1965. Phenomenology & the crisis of philosophy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 1970. Cartesian meditations. The Hague: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. 1972. Models of the interaction of language & social life. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. The ethnography of communication, pp. 35–71. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Jackson, P. W. 1968. Life in classrooms. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Johnson, P. 1984. Oral communication between non-native English speakers in the ESL practicum class. Paper at the Symposium on Classroom-centred Research, AILA 7th World Congress, Brussels.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D. 1981. Second language acquisition & second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D. 1982. Principles & practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kubrusly, M. H. 1984. Does the teacher make a difference? Unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. (ed.). 1980. Discourse analysis in second language research. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Lewis, O. 1959. Five families: Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lock, A. (ed.). 1978. Action, gesture & symbol: The emergence of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Long, M. H. 1983. Does second language instruction make a difference? A review of research. TESOL Quarterly 17; 359–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luckmann, T. (ed.). 1978. Phenomenology & sociology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Malmowski, B. 1935. Coral gardens & their magic. London: Allen & Unwin (2nd edition, 1966).Google Scholar
Mann, S. J. 1982. Verbal reports as data: A focus on retrospection. In Dingwall, S.D., Mann, S. J. & Katamba, F. X., (eds.), Methods & problems in doing applied linguistic research, pp. 87–105. University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Mann, S. J. 1983. Problems in reading and how they may be solved by the reader. Paper at the 1 7th Annual TESOL Convention, Toronto.Google Scholar
Marton, F., Hounsell, D. J., and Entwistle, N. J. (eds.). 1984. The experience of learning. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Meighan, R. 1977. The pupil as client: The learner's experience of schooling. Educational Review 29; 123–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, A. and Maclntyre, D.. 1969. Teachers and teaching. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mueller, C. 1979. Some origins of psychology as a science. Annual Review of Psychology 30; 9–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy-O'Dwyer, M. 1983. Teachers in training: A diary study during an in-service course. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Naiman, M., Frolich, M., Stern, H. H. and Todesco, A.. The good language learner. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.Google Scholar
Nash, R. 1973. Classrooms observed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Nash, R. 1974. Pupil's expectations for their teachers. Research in Education, 11 1974; 46–71.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. 1976. Cognition & reality. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Newport, E. L., Gleitman, H. and Gleitman, L. R.. 1977. Mother l'd rather do it myself: Some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A., (eds.), Talking to children: Language input & acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ochsner, R. 1979. A poetics of second language acquisition. Language Learning 29; 53–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rommetveit, R. 1981. On meanings of situations & social control of such meanings in human communication. In Magnussen, D., (ed.), Toward a psychology of situations: An interactional perspective, pp. 151–67. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Rubin, J. 1981. The study of cognitive processes in second language learning. Applied Linguistics 2; 117–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapir, E. 1949. Culture, language & personality: Selected essays. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Scarcella, R. and Krashen, S. D., (eds.). 1983. Research in second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Schutz, A. 1962, 1964 & 1966. Collected Papers Vols 1–3. The Hague: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Schutz, A. 1967. The phenomenology of the social world. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Schwerdtfeger, I. C. 1984. Exercises in the foreign language classroom: The pupils' point of view. Paper at the Symposium on Foreign Language learning under Classroom Conditions, AILA 7th World Congress, Brussels.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. 1976. Culture's influence on behaviour. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. 1982. On mechanisms of language acquisition: Can features of the communicative environment account for development? In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. R., (eds.). Language acquisition: The stale of the art, pp. 102–27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shotter, J. 1978. Towards a social psychology of everyday life: A standpoint ‘in action.’ In M. Brenner et al., (eds.), pp. 33–43.Google Scholar
Soule-Susbielles, N. 1984. Pupils analyse their own classroom behaviour. Paper at the Symposium on Classroom-centred Research, AILA 7th World Congress, Brussels.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. and Delamont, S. (eds.). 1976. Explorations in classroom observation. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. 1971. Interpretation and the sciences of Man. Review of Metaphysics xxv; 3–51.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. H. 1962. Children's evaluations of the characteristics of a good teacher. British Journal of Educational Psychology 32; 258–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, R. (ed.). 1974. Ethnomethodology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Waller, W. 1932. The sociology of teaching. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterson, N. and Snow, C. E. (eds.). 1978. The development of communication. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wenden, A. L. 1983. The process of interaction. Language Learning 33; 103–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, P. and Hammersley, M. (eds.). 1977. School experience. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Woods, P. 1979. The divided school. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Woods, P. (ed.). 1980a. Pupils' strategies. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Woods, P. 1980b. Teachers' strategies. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar