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Explaining CALL through Activity Theory and vice-versa

Explaining CALL through Activity Theory and vice-versa. Vilson J. Leffa, UCPel Brazil leffa@via-rs.net http://www.leffa.pro.br. Main points. Need for a unifying theory in CALL Introduction to Activity Theory (AT) Structure Principles Hierarchical levels Merging AT with CALL

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Explaining CALL through Activity Theory and vice-versa

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  1. Explaining CALL through Activity Theory and vice-versa Vilson J. Leffa, UCPel Brazil leffa@via-rs.net http://www.leffa.pro.br

  2. Main points • Need for a unifying theory in CALL • Introduction to Activity Theory (AT) • Structure • Principles • Hierarchical levels • Merging AT with CALL • A new paradigm in CALL research?

  3. Need for a unifying theory in CALL • Many “no’s” • No “reliable conceptual framework” (Levy, 1997, p. 3); • No recognition as an area of research (Keegan, 1990, p. 51); • No unifying theory (Holmberg, 1982; Kelly, 1990; Smith, 1980) • The tutor/tool dichotomy Challenge: How to incorporate opposites and fragments into a unified theory

  4. Activity Theory (AT) • AT is a philosophical and cross-disciplinary framework for studying different forms of human practices as developmental processes (Kuutti 1996) • Historical materialism • HCI Hospitals Schools • Social practices • Development

  5. Structure • Segmentation for explanatory purposes • How does the subject appropriate the object?

  6. Mediation • A tool • empowers the subject • materializes an object • imposes limitations • modifies the subject • cannot be discarded

  7. Object - Outcome • Object • Content to be internalized • Outcome • Content actually internalized • Possible conflicts • Phases of the Moon • Teacher’s expectation Versus students’ realizations

  8. Contextualization • The immersion process • Vulnerability • Inside / outside • Distributed cognition • Part of a whole

  9. The whole picture

  10. Principles • object-orientedness • mediation • development • internalization/externalization • unity of consciousness and activity • contextualization • hierarchical structure

  11. Object-orientedness • The object may be • physical, chemical, biological, social, cultural • may involve • feelings, ideas • colonialism, brotherhood • but always treated as objective reality

  12. Principle of mediation • Tools as extension of our organs • Tool + organ = “functional organ” • Transmission of knowledge • Accumulation of knowledge • We need more than our hands and our mind to learn and change; we also need the tools we have created (Bacon)

  13. Principle of development • AT develops continuously • Supports fast methodological updates • Requires a view of historical development • Does not allow re-inventing the wheel

  14. Internalization/externalization • No boundary between what is inside and what is outside • Activities are externalized on objects • Objects may be indispensable • No piano sonata without a piano • Simulation hypothesis • Internalization and ZPD

  15. Hierarchical levels (Harris)

  16. A CALL activity • If AT did not exist we would have to invent it to explain CALL • AT can account for the diversified nature of CALL • Any component in the structure can be replaced • AT can account for the historical development of CALL • Any theory is seen as part of an evolutionary process

  17. Freezing a moment

  18. Structure

  19. The tool issue • Beyond computer • Screen is not a sheet of paper • Undue emphasis on technology? • Demands on the user • The tutor/tool dichotomy

  20. Object-oriented • A beater in a primeval collective hunt, …[frightens] a herd of animals and [sends] them toward other hunters, hiding in ambush. (Leontyev, 1981: 209-210). • Sometimes a student’s action does not coincide with the final objective • Importance of consciousness

  21. Tool mediation • Any piece of courseware [...] carries with it a ‘teacher in the machine’, a projection of the personalities of the designers, programmers, materials developers(Hubard,1996 : 21) • People anthropomorphize computers, treating the machine as if it were a person (Schaumburg, 2001; Reeves & Nass, 1996)

  22. Externalization/ Internalization cycle • We externalize what is inside us through words and gestures • Words and gestures can be saved and reproduced • Images, movement, and interactivity can be added to amplify our gestures • Under certain conditions (ZPD etc.) what is externalized can be internalized

  23. CALL is dynamic • Computers change continuously, requiring activities to be developed and re-developed • Computers facilitate change

  24. The hierarchical issue • Operation level (below consciousness) • Typing skills • Eye-hand synchronization … • Action level (conscious) • Answering a question … • Activity level • Cloze • Chat session …

  25. Final comments • AT as a simple and visual way to explain the complexity of situated CALL • We learn and change through the instruments we create • Playing with different identities • Possibility of starting a new research paradigm if all lose ends in CALL are put together

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