The Sociocultural Worlds of Learners - Essay Example

Part B Option 2

Introduction

A large number of research studies have been conducted to investigate the relationships between context and literacy practices. Among the main contexts that have been identified are formal learning contexts (inside the classroom) and informal learning contexts (outside the classroom). Norton (2000) outlines the importance of integrating the diverse identities of students and their experience of the use of language outside the classroom. Further research into this field by Gutiérrez (2008) has demonstrated that a dynamic learning context with a unique grammar of possibility can be created through the integration of teachers’ and students’ language and knowledge. Canagarajah (2004) suggests that students adapt to inside classroom literacies by creating safe contexts which support hybrid-identities and code-mixing within spaces outside the surveillance of teachers.

In his book The sociocultural worlds of learners (2012), Hall describes three approaches that attempt to link students’ experiences. These are: Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT); the funds of knowledge approach; and the language awareness curriculum. These approaches are characterized by different features that predispose them to the ultimate goal of integrating learners’ outside classroom literacies with those inside the classroom. Nunan and Richards (2015) argue that for the meaningful integration of the outside and classroom literacy, learners need to be prepared adequately for out-of-class learning. This is because learners are exposed to outside literacies before classroom literacies, and hence their integration contributes positively to their literacy levels.

Learners acquire knowledge both in and out of school. The two experiences are related at different levels and contribute to the knowledge of the learners. In an effort to create a hybrid system, researchers like Gutiérrez (2008) produced alternative contexts that can be used to bridge the gap between classroom literacies and those outside the classroom.

The world has seen a major shift in literacy practices due to the emergence of new media and technologies. Having conducted intensive research into the integration of the different learners’ literacies with classroom literacies (Ivanic et al., 2016) concluded that linking students’ and teachers’ literacies is beneficial to both students and teachers. This paper outlines the main benefits and challenges of creating a link between learners’ outside literacies and those in the classroom. It also describes an educational context that best utilizes the created link, and its effect on the kind of languages used in teaching activities.

Language and culture

The language theory of Noam Chomsky states that individuals are born with universal grammar, that is, a mental blueprint for processing language (Hall, 2015). Traditional proponents of applied linguistics, therefore, argue that language learning is ordered by innate, coherent and abstract systems in the human mind. Linguistic scholars attempt to explore the universal properties of an innate language, the role of cognitive processes and the developmental sequences of particular language and culture acquisition. Hall (2015) proposes the participatory pedagogy and multi-literacy project approaches to language learning within the classroom context. Language learning is a purposeful social behavior that requires full participation by the learner both in the classroom and in outside contexts. Students often bring with them to class sociocultural and informal linguistic experience, and when they leave the classroom, they encounter outside opportunities which often affect their classroom experiences. Gutiérrez (2008) suggests that disadvantaged minorities are entitled to a redesigned curriculum that takes into account their sociocultural backgrounds.

Benefits of creating a link between learners outside literacies and those inside the classrooms

There are several benefits of creating a link between learners’ outside literacies with those inside the classroom. Identifying how students react to outside experiences and the opportunities that arise from them may help teachers to organize language classes (Ivanic et al.,2016). This will ensure better language teaching is delivered to students. A research conducted by Ivanic et al. (2016) showed that teachers who understood the characteristics of students’ outside literacies were able to redesign some aspects of the course. For example, one tutor used her understanding of how students read non-linear texts to help them plan their assignments using mind maps (Ivanic et al.,2016).

Integration of learners’ outside literacies with those inside the classroom helps eliminate learners’ detrimental attitudes towards learning. Since the role of teachers is to establish knowledge gained from such experiences and structure it to shape the features of teaching and learning (Freebody, Maton and Martin, 2008), linking outside literacies with those inside the classroom encourages free communication and appropriate feedback. Learners who may be positioned by others so that it is impossible to speak can be helped through integrated contexts (Norton,2010). This is beneficial since an integrated context makes it possible for teachers to enable learners to take up more powerful positions in the classroom setting (Norton,2010).

It is easier for teachers to instruct learners to practice classroom concepts in their out of school contexts once a link between the two has been established. In the end, the learners gain more than they would have gained if the two contexts were not linked (Ivanic et al., 2016). Research has shown that where students are involved in a lot of literacy practices, many of them involve collaborative, multi-modal, electronic and non-linear reading (Ivanic et al., 2016). An integrated context helps teachers understand such literacy practices which can then be used to offer better teaching instructions rather than resorting to spoon feeding learners with a lot of written content (Ivanic et al., 2016).

Linking of learners outside literacies with those inside the classroom can help eradicate harmful stereotypes evident in out of classroom literacies. For example, limited perceptions of girls’ abilities (Marsh, 2010). An integrated context makes it possible for teachers to discredit erroneous notions encouraged in out of classroom literacies by providing counteractive ideas and concepts that embrace the correct and logical way of thinking. (Norton, 2010) suggests that these perceptions can also be counteracted by the use of pedagogic practices such as the use of diaries to enhance researchers’ and teachers’ understanding of student literacies.

An integrated context can help teachers to prepare students for an efficient and effective use of language outside of the classroom (Norton, 2010). Norton further argues that students are more invested in language learning which they believe will bring about their desired identity and the imagined community membership to which they aspire in the future. Teachers can use their understanding of such identities to develop strategies that are effective in embracing learners’ aspirations and the effect these have on learners’ investment in different kinds of learning. This will help improve learners’ ability to communicate outside the classroom. Teachers can then also engage students in critical reflection on their perceptions of these opportunities and encourage them to challenge their opinions (Norton, 2010).

With new media, technology, and digital literacy, a new culture is emerging, and out of school learning experiences are changing. Classroom experiences are also changing with developments in technology and culture. Macarthur (2008) argues that there has been a great change in culture in barely a decade. This is as a result of the Internet, social media, video sharing, the mobile phone (smart phones), video and photo sharing sites, among other things. Language learners benefit from this new platform by enhancing their linguistic skills outside the classroom (Chan, 2011). These cultural changes affect the way children and young people communicate, socialize, play and express themselves (Gregory et al., 2007). With new media platforms, students can constantly keep in touch with their friends, meet new friends and share content online. Consequently, such learners are exposed to unlimited information online and are they are able to explore beyond classroom experiences.

Challenges of making a link between learners’ outside literacies with those in the classroom

There are several challenges facing the learning community in creating an integrated context. This is because of the long term effects of existing approaches such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which fail to address power issues between learners of a language and the target speakers (Norton, 2010). For example they fail to consider situations where learners may effectively be silenced.

Creating a link between out of classroom literacies and those inside the classroom is difficult because curricula are structured to the standards of natives, and yet are expected to provide a level ground for all learners (Norton, 2010). This makes integration of formal and informal contexts difficult due to lack of standardization of curricula used by learners. A factor contributing to such difficulty is the different varieties of English used throughout the world (Seargeant, 2012). Creating a link in these conditions is challenging unless standardization of curricula is achieved.

It is challenging teachers to effectively engage all students in a classroom setting when they have individual needs, desires and aspirations associated with their identities (Norton, 2010). Practical guidance used to integrate formal and informal contexts requires that all students are included in the process of integration. Teachers may overlook students whose position in the classroom is effectively silenced. Integration is also quite difficult since “Pedagogical reform efforts are usually preoccupied with technical issues but pay scant attention to the values, beliefs and assumptions that practitioners hold on teaching and learning” (Chafi & Elkhouzai, 2017). Institutions concerned with streamlining of school curricula focus on issues that ignore the culture and possible integration of classroom literacies with outside classroom literacies. Without support of such institutions creating an integrated context becomes difficult.

Teachers are constrained by the syllabus and limited time and hence they cannot effectively link learners’ outside literacies to those inside the classroom. Time is a very powerful constraint in creating an integrated context. In cases where teachers would like to integrate leaners’ outside classroom language with classroom literacies sufficient training is required. Training requires time and also depends on the participants’ inclination to allocate time to it (Mirzajani et al.,2015). A preset curriculum emphasizes inside classroom contexts and disregards out of classroom contexts (Norton, 2010). This makes it difficult for learners to fully express themselves since they are exposed to a great deal of written material rather than to integrated learning (Ivanic et al., 2016).

The kind of knowledge and experience gained outside the classroom by students using new media is immense. Students may use new media to explore interests such as creative writing, to learn about video editing, and so on. By exploring such avenues, and through sharing their experiences and creativity by use of new media, the teens break through the barriers of self-learning. The digital world expands the classroom knowledge. It has also created a more informed generation that is critical and more observant. This cultural shift can also be damaging to classroom learning since some of the online knowledge may distort classroom experience. This may be advantageous to students but may affect classroom literacies negatively.

Linking learners’ outside literacies with inside classroom literacies is quite difficult in situations where “educators recursively overlook the cultural dimension in educational undertakings,” (Alexandar,2001 as cited by Elkhouzai & Chafi 2017). Teachers may ignore important aspects of students’ outside classroom literacies in favor of their own cultural orientation. This is because teachers are not culturally “void” when they are in the classroom hence their cultural values, beliefs and assumptions affect their pedagogical practices (Chafi &Elkhouzai, 2017). This makes creating an integrated context very difficult since students may hold prejudices against their teacher’s cultural beliefs.

Learners exposed to the digital world, for example social media, may adopt attitudes that erode proper manners and behavior. This is a challenge experienced in integrating out of classroom literacies with formal classroom contexts, since learners constantly exposed to bad influence may be difficult to deal with. The large community created by social media creates peer-based interactions (Marsh et al., 2005) which may not be appropriate in the formal context. This makes creating an integrated context challenging.

Educational context

Having been a high school teacher for the past three years, I have learned how to create an effective link between my students’ out of classroom literacies with that learned in class. I have also embraced ideas from Gutierrez (2008) to deal with students who come from non-dominant communities by creating a ‘third space’. According to Widdowson (quote 6.4, in Hall, 2012, p. 119) ‘teachers should focus on developing students’ basic language capacity within the classroom, to provide them with resources which they can then fine-tune themselves for communication outside the classroom’. Widdowson’s pedagogical response has provided me with proper guidance that enables me to streamline my teaching practices to maximize the process of learning.

Teaching at high school level has given me the opportunity to integrate new practices such as ‘syncretic literacy’. I am constantly in contact with students from diverse backgrounds, and this calls for an integrated context that is inclusive rather than the ‘one size fits all’ (Gutierrez2008) system

New literacy practices ‘challenge the notion that students can be taught decontextualized, neutral literacy skills’ (Ivanic et al.,2007). They draw attention to the introduction of literacy learning within ‘contexts shaped by local interactions, power relationships, values and beliefs’ (Ivanic et al., 2007). Employing this practice, I have been able to design an approach that utilizes the link created between students’ outside literacies and those inside the classroom.

Applying the multi-literacies approach (Hall, 2012, p.126) in my classroom has helped promote my students’ development of a wide range of understandings and perspectives. The multi-literacies approach comprises four features: situated practice; overt instructions; critical framing; and transformed practice. Teaching in high school allows me to best utilize the link between formal and informal contexts by understanding the identities of different learners and their individual aspirations.

Utilizing the integrated context in teaching and learning contexts produces different effects on the language my students use. I employ language that encourages students to participate in academic literacies that draw on the range of linguistic and semiotic resources they use (Donohue, 2012).

Conclusion

Linking the language learning experiences in the classroom and outside the class room is critical to a learner’s linguistic development. This is even more important in the digital era where Internet and modern digital gadgets have become part of the new culture. Language learning, therefore, stretches beyond the classroom (Nunan and Richards, 2015). However, it is important to underscore the importance of the classroom experience. Since learning is based on learner needs and preferences, it is important to set an environment where learners actively participate, to provide options and suggestions on resources, to ensure peer support among learners, and to involve learners in making decisions and choices. In such an integrated environment the teacher becomes a facilitator, students are exposed to wider sources of knowledge, capacity for self-learning is enhanced, and students formulate their learning strategies. The students feel motivated and in control even when they utilize learning materials and opportunities outside the classroom. Educators do not have to focus on abolishing the new learner’s background, but to integrate it into the classroom experience. Learners are expected to adopt the classroom knowledge when engaging in out-of-classroom literacies. The classroom, therefore, is a foundation through which learners gain knowledge and skill. The application of such knowledge is dependent on the individual initiative of the learners, and since classroom literacy is standardized, it is expected that learners will adhere to its norms.

The advent of digital media and technology has opened a new sociocultural phenomenon that is subject to investigation by linguistic and education scholars (Gutiérrez, 2008). Schools too must find means of integrating the new digital culture into the curricula and pedagogy that will enable learners to explore the opportunities on digital platforms to satisfy the technical and cultural demands (Digital Youth Research, n.d.). Therefore, it is essential that teachers are trained in emerging technologies in order to cope, and that schools upgrade their technology to meet the new demands. These processes are gradual and costly but worth investing in. Most schools are digitizing their libraries, hence creating more space and personal access to the library for students. Through mobile phones and computers, students gain access to unlimited resources in the library. This has opened up space in physical libraries and hence enhancing the learners’ experience. Distance (online) learning at advanced levels is also widely practiced across the globe; this has freed up campus space. Therefore, there is a need for language classrooms to be redesigned. The change in the ways students learn and interact calls for a simultaneous change in the way they interact with teachers in a classroom situation. This calls for an integrated context that fully addresses the classroom agenda while taking into consideration the personal identities and interests of the students.