From National Educational Standards to Language Use

Sally Sieloff Magnan

University of Wisconsin-Madison

ssmagnan@wisc.edu

Philosophy of the Standardsp. 7

• “The United States must educate students who are equipped linguistically and culturally to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad.”

The National Standards of Foreign Language Education

• From a task Force: ACTFL, AATs (1996)

• Goals for Foreign Language learning K-16

• “What students should know and be able to do with the foreign language”

FIVE Cs: National Standards

• Communication. Communicate e in languages other than English face-to-face, in writing, and across texts

• Cultures. Gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures

• Connections. Connect with other disciplines and acquire information.

• Comparisons. Develop insights into the nature of language and culture.

• Communities. Participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.

Education week, November 1995

“It’s amazing to think that exactly 100 years ago, we were making virtually the same recommendations …but this time around…it is no longer a committee of 10, but some 10,000 teachers at the fore of promoting rigorous academic standards in languages ranging from Latin to Spanish to Thai.”

(Christine Brown, chair of task force)

Impact of Standards

• Influence on framing instruction

• Publication in pedagogical journals

ACTFL volumes, Foreign Language Annals, Hispania, Die Unterrichtspraxis, Northeast Conference, Central States Conference, Modern Language Journal

• Questionable extent of curricular revision

Working conclusions

1. They are based on well-accepted notions of what is important in teaching.

2. The content standard of “knowing how, when, and why to say what to whom” relates well with communicative language teaching.

Content Standards for Successful Communication

“knowing how, when, and why to say what to whom”

=

all the linguistic and social knowledge required for effective human-to-human interaction

Communicative CompetenceDell Hymes (1964)

• An individual’s competence to use language effectively is intimately linked to his or her knowledge of social considerations:– Setting– Participants– Goals of the communicative activity.

Bachman (1990)

• language competence

– organizational competence (grammatical, textual)

– pragmatic competence (illocutionary, sociolinguistic)

• strategic competence• psychophysiological mechanisms

Celce-Murcia et al. Model of Communicative Competence

(1995)

FIVE Cs

Which C is primary?

• Standards say Communication

• “A communicatively competent individual combines knowledge of the language system with knowledge of cultural conventions, norms of politeness, discourse conventions, and the like, in order to transmit and receive meaningful messages successfully.” (p. 40)

Teachers: Communication and Culture of equal importance

Administrators: Culture most important

(Bartz & Singer, 1996)

COMMUNICATION

INTERPERSONAL. Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

INTERPRETIVE. Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics.

PRESENTATIONAL. Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics

Which C is primary?

• An argument for culture.

Wisconsin Standards

Another Working Conclusion

• Through the Communication modes, the Standards maintain an interrelated distinctness between communication and cultures, while recognizing the importance of both.

The interdependency of language and culture

• Languaculture (Ager, 1994)

• Lantolf (in press) extends the concept to language learning and instruction

Galbreath, Jernigan, & Moore (1997)

1. Much culture teaching came from unplanned, casual comments especially on products and practices.

2. Films helped students glean information on practices and products

3. There was little evidence of instruction on perspectives.

4. Cultural concepts were not evaluated.

5. Different instructors handled culture differently.

• Third space

• Interculturality

• Multiculturalism

• Vs. communicative competence

Vygotsky, Essence of mindSociocultural Theory

(1978+)

• Language begins in material and social world.

• By participating in communicative activities with more capable members of a community, we acquire communicative competence.

• In acquiring language, we transform linguistic symbols into individual knowledge, as we acquire the world view embedded in it. This internalization constitutes psychological growth.

Standards and SCT“Language and communication are at the

heart of the human enterprise” (S, p.7)To relate in a meaningful way to another

human being, one must be able to communicate” (S, p.11)

Human development cannot be separated from social context.

Language acquisition “occurs as a result of meaningful verbal interaction … between novices and experts in the environment.” (Schinke-Llano, 1995, p. 22, quoted in Gifford & Mullaney, p. 14)

Standards highlight learning as doing.

“Active use of language is central to the learning process; therefore, learners must be involved in generating utterances for themselves. They learn by doing, by trying out language, and by modifying it to serve communicative needs.” (S, p. 37)

Vygotsky sees learning as the result of mediation in joint problem-solving.

Mediation

• Knowledge is co-constructed through mediation using verbal, visual, or physical using tools

• More competent members assist others

• Meaning-making resources are carriers of sociocultural practices and knowledge (Wertsch, 1994)

Activity Theory and SCT

• Activities shape abilities and skills

• Expectations bring issues of identity to play

(Engeström, 1993)–

Which C is primary?

Positioning the Community Standard

“Goal five [Communities] looks beyond the classroom and focuses on the PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS of what has been learned in the second-language curriculum.

(Valette, 1997, p. 23).

Implementations of the Community Standard

• Extracurricular “international” summer language Camp (Lally, 2000)

• Email exchanges (Torii-Williams, 2004)

• Online chats (Darhower, 2006)

• Online gaming or MMOGs such as World of Warcraft (Thorne, 2007)

Meme: kak dela?Zomn: :))) normalno :)))Meme: if I may ask, what did I say haha, I'm not quite sureZomn: how r u :) ///Meme: what does normalno mean? good?Zomn: i sad goooooood :)))Meme: alright =)Meme: do you speak any languages besides russian?Zomn: yeap ... english :)) ... n studing spanish ..Zomn: per aspera ad astra :) ?Meme: through our endevours, to the stars =)Meme: nice phraseZomn: i like it too Thorne, forthcoming

View of the General Public

Advisory board (individuals outside the language teaching profession) believed that

"participation in multilingual/multicultural communities, was the raison d’être for foreign language study”

(Phillips 1998, p. 32).

Features of a community• Membership• Shared location• Shared cultural practices and values• Interpersonally meaningful relationship• Collective goods and resources• Commitment and reciprocity• Sense of identity• Sustain duration• (Thorne, 2007)

On community

• A “normal member of a community” has knowledge of many aspects of communicative systems. He “will interpret or assess the conduct of others and himself in ways that reflect that knowledge.”

• “The knowledge acquired by different individuals is identical, despite identity of manifestation and apparent system.” (Hymes,1972, p. 282)

Community of Practice(Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998)

• People come together in social groups for a common endeavor.

• These groups shape identity by exercising power over members to conform with or change social patterns of interaction.

• Participation in communities of practice becomes the fundamental process of learning.

Community Standard

• 5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.

• 5.2 Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

Darhower suggests addition to Community standard

• 5.3 “Students engage in intercultural communication in the target language by becoming active participants in a community of speakers of the language” (2006, p. 96)

FIVE Cs

Wisconsin Standards