Thammasat University students interested in linguistics, education, English language studies, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 10 January Zoom seminar on Narrative Methods and Ecological Perspectives in Language Learning Research.
The event, on Tuesday, 10 January 2023 at 11:45am Bangkok time, is organized by the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU).
The TU Library collection includes books about different aspects of ecological language learning.
The speaker will be Professor Andy Gao of the School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of New South Wales, Australia.
The event webpage explains:
Abstract:
In this talk, I present the use of narratives as a methodological approach and ecological perspectives as conceptual tools in research. I will first present the features of narrative methods in terms of data collection, analysis and theoretical assumptions. I will discuss how narratives can be conceptualized with reference to ecological perspectives and how the two can work together in research. Sample studies on language learning (e.g., language learning strategy, motivation, willingness to communicate, anxiety and beliefs) will be used to demonstrate how narrative methods and ecological perspectives enable researchers to explore the ways in which contextual conditions mediate language learners’ learning, and why they display features associated with these individual difference variables. I conclude with a discussion of what the future holds for narrative methods and ecological perspectives in research.
About the speaker:
Professor Andy Gao is a language teacher educator at the School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of New South Wales Australia. His research interests include international students’ educational experiences, language learner agency, language and literacy education, language education policy and language teacher education. Over the years, Professor Gao has been promoting the use of sociocultural/ecological perspectives to understand language learner’s strategy use and language teacher agency.
Students are invited to register at this link.
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=85608
In an article on the ecology of language learning by Dr. Leo Van Liera of the Monterey Institute, Monterey, California, the United States of America, the following definitions are offered:
Abstract
In this presentation I will look at language learning from an ecological perspective, an approach that focuses primarily on the quality of learning opportunities, of classroom interaction and of educational experience in general. Important pedagogical principles in an ecological approach are the creation of ecologically valid contexts, relationships, agency, motivation and identity.
Each of these concepts will be examined and illustrated from a practical and a theoretical perspective, using data from a variety of contexts. In ecology, practice and theory are closely interrelated, and they are dynamic and emergent, never finished or absolute. Both are based on principles that are powerful and enduring, once teachers and learners make them their own.
In this presentation I outline some practical and theoretical ramifications of an ecological approach. The ideas presented here are based on many years of work on language classrooms, language pedagogy, curriculum design, and exploring the interfaces between practice, research and theory…
The reader is encouraged to look up a lithograph of Maurits Escher called “Three Worlds.” This depicts the surface of a body of water upon which leaves float. Above the surface, we see reflected in the water the sky and trees. Below the surface we can just make out a big catfish. I like to use this image to illustrate that any utterance has a number of layers of meaning. It refers not only to the here and now, but also to the past and the future of the person or persons involved in the speech event, to the world around us, and to the identity that the speaker projects.
This multi-level nature of the meanings the utterance is what Jan Blommaert (2006) refers to as “layered simultaneity.” In other words, any utterance can carry several layers of meaning, just as there are three “worlds” in the Escher picture. First the world of the surface, the water with leaves floating on it. Second, the world below the water, with a big catfish faintly visible. Third, the world above, with sky and trees reflected on the water’s surface.
This image can remind us that every utterance embeds layers of historicity and identity, as well as presentness. There are many examples of such layered simultaneity in our daily work of practice, research and theorizing…
- Central concepts in an ecology of learning
An ecological approach aims to look at the learning process, the actions and activities of teachers and learners, the multilayered nature of interaction and language use, in all their complexity and as a network of interdependencies among all the elements in the setting, not only at the social level, but also at the physical and symbolic level…
Ecology is the study of the relationships among elements in an environment or ecosystem, in particular the interactions among such elements. In the human sphere, we can distinguish relationships at physical, social and symbolic levels. These three levels interact in multiple ways and arrangements. To give an example, just saying, “look at that!” relates one person to another person through language (plus possibly a pointing gesture), and establishes joint attention to a particular physical property in the environment, perhaps a rainbow in the sky. Joint attention makes further linguistic utterances relevant, such as, “Wow!” and may invoke symbolic (cultural, aesthetic, superstitious) connections, further talk, jokes about crocks of gold, predictions about tomorrow’s weather, and so on.
A simple everyday example such as the one above illustrates how multiple relationships are established in and among the physical, social and symbolic worlds in human ecosystems, and how language serves to establish, maintain and expand such relationships. The world is full of opportunities to establish relationships, and once again, aspects of the physical world, such as clouds, trees, rocks; the sociocultural world of artifacts (houses, roads, classrooms) and social communities (families, schools, soccer teams); and the symbolic world of ideas, histories, stories and belief systems, provide numerous affordances to engage in activities of various kinds. Affordances are relationships of possibility, that is, they make action, interaction and joint projects possible…
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)