Language learning as bricolage in new media environments

1. Language learning as bricolage in new media environments EUROCALL September 10th, 2009 Steven L. Thorne Department of Applied Linguistics | Center for Language Acquisition The Pennsylvania State University

7. Remixing and fan faction Black, R.W. (2008). Adolescents and online fan fiction. New York: Peter Lang. Thorne, S. L., & Black, R. (2007). Language and literacy development in computer-mediated contexts and communities. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27: 133-160. Thorne, S. L., & Black, R. W. (forthcoming). Identity and interaction in Internet-mediated contexts. In C. Higgins (ed.), Negotiating the self in a second language: Identity formation and cross-cultural adaptation in a globalizing world. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

9. World of Warcraft

12. Big context & emerging environments • 1.7 billion Internet users world wide • 1 in 10 individuals in the U.S. have started a blog • 16 + million play World of Warcraft • 90 + % of students use facebook & other social media, 3-5 million new facebook users per week • Users of social media “curate” online personas (Clive Thompson, NY Times, 2008)

13. Our challenges as researchers/educators • L2 education involves determining the acquisitional potential of different social practices • Re-weighting the useandexchange values of the object of educational activity • What are the possibilities for revisioning educational practice through critical recognition of new media genres and literacies?

14. A talk in 4 parts • Part 1: Theoretical orientations • Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) + friends • Part 2: Instant messaging, blogs, and multi-directional flows • CHAT as in interventionist and interpretive framework • Descriptive corpus analyses of language development • Part 3: Gaming and virtual environments • Part 4: Cultivating language awareness through bridging activities • Convergent and divergent genres

15. Part 1: Cultural-historical psychology Thorne, S. L. (2005). Epistemology, politics, and ethics in sociocultural theory. Modern Language Journal, 89: 393-409. Thorne, S. L. (2000). Second language acquisition theory and some truth(s) about relativity. In J. Lantolf (ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 219-243). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thorne, S. L., & Lantolf, J. (2007). A linguistics of communicative activity. In S. Makoni & A. Pennycook (eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp. 170-195). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

16. Vygotsky’s model of mediated action Mediational Means Subject Object • Human activity is mediated by symbolic and material artifacts • Strong mediation and “cultures-of-use” (Thorne, 2003; Thorne & Black, 2007)

17. Modern cultural historical activity theory • Activity theory as heuristic: Engeström’s model (1987)

18. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) • Structurationist lineage: human activity structures, and is structured by, enduring properties of the social-material world --> “ratcheting up” (Tomasello, 1999) • CHAT analyses attempt to establish systems of culturally organized practices and their interrelations -- Multiple activity systems are always at work! • CHAT = a dialectical focus on explaining & evoking human development -- research and innovation/intervention

19. Post-language pedagogy • Historical ‘invention’ of languages/genres -- processes that reify mutable, local, and contingent language use into categorical linguistic varieties (e.g., Makoni & Pennycook, 2007) • ‘Language’ is the epiphenomenon of professional linguists and conservative epistemological prescriptivists • A “linguistics of communicative activity” (Thorne & Lantolf, 2007) • Recuperation and extension of usage-based and meaning centered approaches to linguistically mediated human action • It is “solely through the utterance [use] that language makes contact with communication, is imbued with its vital power, and becomes a reality” (Volosinov, 1973) • Fragments and repertoires --> bricolage

20. Part 2a: Instant messaging, blogs, & multi-directional semiotic flows: An intervention study Thorne, S. L. (2009). ‘Community’, semiotic flows, and mediated contribution to activity. Language Teaching, 42(1).

21. Designing for relevance & interpenetration • High school Spanish AP (5) and level 2 courses • Pedagogical intervention: Integrating blog and IM use • Semiotic ecology that is inclusive of both schooling and students’ broader life contexts (actual and desired) • Research focus: relation between in and out of school communication -- interactivity system analysis • Technology available at school (labs and laptop carts), public library, and home

22. Laminating literacies & cultures Everyday culture-of-use of IM Educational uses of IM Blogs in and out of class Use of IM for social purposes with peers Use of IM for education with classmates Blogs catalyze interactivity system fusion Non-institutional identities Student subject positions *CHAT graphic based on Engeström 1987, 1993

23. Spanish as an expanded object • Student_1: “I’ve noticed that people sort of find their own style of writing blogs or IM and you sort of adopt that as you go whether it be in English or Spanish.” • Student_2: “its kinda like any conversation you’d have [with] like a friend on IM or facebook or something its like the same thing but you’re doing it in Spanish” • Student_3: “You have Spanish IMs, so being clever and using words well and you know how it is -- you have to make up a personality using words, so you have to do that in Spanish.” • Students deemphasize the particularities of any specific language and instead focus on doing things with language

24. Multi-directional semiotic flows Centripetal emphasis on exogenous activity systems/language socialization practices influencing education (Thorne, 1999, 2000, 2003) Centrifugal dynamics in evidence --> ‘school knowledge’ out to world! • Frequently using Spanish over IM when not required • Posting Spanish blog entries from class to personal blogs and translating personal blog entries into Spanish • Spanish a resource for the expanded object of becoming an engaging socially desirable interlocutor – “stylization” (Rampton, 2002), “shuttling” (Canagarajah, 2006) • Development is always fundamentally about identity (Gee; Lave & Wenger; Leont’ev; Vygotsky)

25. Part 2b: Use value and development: A corpus-informed assessment of L2 writing With Julieta Fernandez & Aziz Yuldashev Thorne, S. L., Fernandez, J., Yuldashev, A. (in preparation). Use value and digital literacies: A corpus-informed assessment of L2 writing.

26. Basic Tenets of Corpus Analysis • Data driven, highly empirical • A grammar of use based on attested utterance types • Language structure, i.e., formulaic sequences comprise ~60% of language use (Wray, 2002; Schmitt & Carter, 2004) • Emergent grammar (Hopper, 2002; Bybee, 2001) • Grammar = observable patterns in discourse • Grammar a consequence, not a precondition -- epiphenomenal • “Grammar contracts as texts expand” --> fragments and repertoires

27. Corpus assessment of Spanish L2 Writing Compilation of blog and IM texts from the State College Area High school district compiled March 2009 The Spanish AP corpus currently = 500,000 tokens (and growing / under construction) For the present study, data from the academic year 2005-2006 Tracking the microgenesis of language development

28. Blogs -- most recurrent 2-word chunks

29. Blogs -- most recurrent 3-word chunks

30. Me gusta

31. Uses of me gusta by week – Benito # of uses Weeks

32. Blog concordancing lines: me gusta by Isabel

33. Uses of me gusta by week – Isabel Weeks

34. Most recurrent 2-word chunks: Blogs

35. Pienso que -- Alicia -- Blog • pienso que -- i think that... • pienso de [esta estacion/del invierno] -- my opinion about [this season/winter] • pienso en [state college] -- I think about [state college] • lo primero pienso cuando pienso en la primavera -- the first thing I think about when I think about spring

36. Corpus assessment of L2 writing • Descriptive assessment of change in L2 writing over time • Focus on actual language use in non-testing contexts • Illustrates erratic paths generally trending toward preferred usages of high frequency expressions Continuing Research: Application of usage-based model of linguistics/language acquisition (Tomasello, 2003) • Processes of entrenchment & preemption • Formulaic sequence --> low scope pattern --> construction • Schematization and analogy

37. Part 3: Gaming & virtual environments Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W., & Sykes, J. (accepted, forthcoming in 2009). Second Language Use, Socialization, and Learning in Internet Interest Communities and Online Games. Modern Language Journal, 93. Sykes, J., Oskoz, A., & Thorne, S. L. (2008). Web 2.0, synthetic immersive environments, and mobile resources for language education. CALICO Journal, 25(3): 528-546. Thorne, S. L. (2008). Transcultural communication in open Internet environments and massively multiplayer online games. In S. Magnan (ed.), Mediating discourse online (pp. 305-327). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

38. Multiple stances and social identities Sykes & Thorne, 2008

39. Approaches to virtual environments • Reproduction of conventional educational architectures and activities (i.e., virtual campuses, classrooms, & learning spaces) • Power point presentations • One-to-many lecturing and interactional patterns • Group and dyad work using written or voice chat • Exploration of “naturally occurring” online activity (Second Life --> French, Spanish, Italian, ESL areas; MMOs) • Virtual ethnography • Social interaction, relationship development, dancing ... • Expansion of conventional educational spaces, tasks, and goal-orientations utilizing gaming principles (i.e., “Serious Games”, SIEs) • Simulations with ‘bots (e.g., pragmatics, Sykes, in progress) • Bounded constructed spaces • Work space for instructor- and student-initiated projects • Support concrete goal-directed action, emphasizing particular language functions

40. VEs vs. MMOs What MMOs have that most VEs don’t • Quests -- Game-specific goal-directed actions • Sculpted environments designed to foster learning-as-process (effectivity-affordance, failure states & universal success) • Score keeping, leveling, progressive access to more complexity • NPCs and in-game support resources as pedagogical forces • ‘Action talk’ and high stakes scenarios: negotiation, corrective feedback, directives, argumentation, compromise, expression of frustration and encouragement, … • Complex social organization --> Groups & Guilds

41. World of Warcraft

42. World of Warcraft

43. World of Warcraft