A full description of Language learning pathways: The Ecology and semiotics of LL

1. Language learning pathways:
The ecology and semiotics of LL
Course: Second Language Acquisition Studies
Instructor: Dr. Jila Naeini
Student: Zahra Bayani

2. outline
Section I: Language learning pathways
 Common views on second language learning:
 Central concepts in learning
Section II: Changing times: Why Ecology?
 Semiotics and Ecology history and definition
 Aspects and main characteristics of an ecological approach:
 Basic constructs of ecology:
 The ecological perspective for language education
 Ecological Implication for foreign language educators
 Conclusion
 References

3. Views on language learning:
Ecological models of language development view
language learning systems as a blend of social
semiotic and ecosystem dynamics, or “ecosocial
dynamics. Semiotic practices are conceptualized as
material processes at various low and high scale
levels. The ecological approach maintains that
information is picked up when something in the
linguistic surroundings is perceived as significant,
that is behaviorally relevant. (Scollon, 1976).

4. Language learning pathways and common views on
second language learning:
1.Trigger
2.Input
3.Negotiation of meaning
4.Affordances

5. 1. Trigger
In the innatist view, language is neither taught nor learned, it basically grows
as a ‘mental organ.’ In the old days this ability was called the LAD, a black-
box mechanism to account for the apparent ease with which children acquire
their native language.
The linguistic knowledge the child has is underdetermined by the data
available. It means that the child knows more than he/she can possibly have
encountered in the environment. The assumption is that there must be a rich
innate mental structure in the brain that unfolds just by virtue of the child’s
being in an environment in which the language is used (Gibson, 1991).

6. 2. INPUT
Krashen, possibly the strongest advocate of an innatist approach
in the second-language field, holds that acquisition occurs at a
subconscious level when a learner is exposed to comprehensible
input in which linguistic forms occur that are just slightly ahead
of the learner’s current level of Inter-language, that is, the current
level of proficiency or competence in the second language
(Krashen, 1985).

7. Krashen’s theoretical assumption (ANIMA):

8. 3. Negotiation of Meaning
It is clear that we can make language more comprehensible by
engaging in meaningful interaction .The learner, while engaged in
a meaningful task, attends to those features of language that
require modification for the task to be successful. Here the learner
may naturally focus on form (FonF), or his/her attention may be
drawn to specific formal features that are deemed to be of
importance. Another important feature is ‘output’ that is assumed
to be a valuable aspect of interaction.

9. 4. Affordance
Affordances are the properties of teaching and learning system as perceived
by the user which allow certain actions and specific types of behavior.
According to Gibson,1979 to perceive the world is to co-perceive oneself.
This means that when we try to perceive something, we perceive it as it relates
to us. Affordances, whether natural or cultural, direct or indirect, are relations
of possibility between language users. They can be acted upon to make further
linguistic action possible. Affordances in communication are intermingled with
and hooked into a myriad of other meaning-producing signs and sign chains
(Flynn, 1991).

10. Central concepts in learning:
 Vygotsky (ZPD)
 Scaffolding
 Prolepsis

11. 1. Vygotsky’s ZPD
Vygotsky developed the notion of a ZPD as a new
approach for investigating the interaction between
learning and development. He strongly rejects the
“botanical, vegetable character of child
development”. In the field of second and foreign
language learning, the ZPD has from time to time
been equated with Krashen’s Input Hypothesis,
notably the ‘i+1’ or comprehensible input
hypothesis.

12. 2. Scaffolding
The opponents of ZPD and socio-
cultural approaches in education
hesitate that through ZPD and help of
an expert to learn, a child can
become over reliant on adult support.
So in 1976, the concept of
scaffolding emerged. It means
reducing the degree of freedom that
child has to cope with and provide a
model of expectation. As a result in
education:
Support from the expert is gradually
reduced as child’s knowledge and
confidence increases .

13. 3. Prolepsis
Prolepsis is a form of looking ahead,
of assuming something to be the case
before it has been encountered, a
foreshadowing in some sense. The
notion of prolepsis was much
discussed by Bakhtin, 1981. Proleptic
instruction, then, places the learners in
a context in which the teacher assumes
that the learners know more than they
actually do. In prolepsis the conditions
are created for the learner to grow into
the subject matter. This notion is thus
very close to the notion of the ZPD
(Bruner, 1976).

14. Changing times: Why Ecology?
In second language acquisition research, the groundbreaking article of Diane
Larsen-Freeman,1997 on complexity theory was followed by studies that
encourage us to view growing competence in a second language as a non-
linear, emergent phenomenon. It was applied to the teaching of English as a
second language and to foreign language acquisition within a sociocultural
theory of second language development. A key characteristic of any
ecological approach is its contextualized character. It can be argued that this
inevitably leads to a critical perspective, since whatever happens in the
examined context becomes part of the investigation.

15. What is Semiotics?
Semiotics can be defined as the study of sign-making
and sign-using practices. Through language we jump
straight into the sign world, on the indexical plane.
This plane becomes a workbench or desktop from
which we make sense of experience and become part
of a sociocultural-historical world. Language is thus
a way of gaining access, both to the physical world
of space, time, and objects to the social world of
people, events, and societies.

16. What is Ecology?
Ecology is the study of the relationships among
elements in an environment or ecosystem, in
particular the interactions among such elements. 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 (Van lier, 2002).

17. Aspects and main characteristics of an
ecological approach:
The ecological approach has a number of
characteristics that these characteristics are not
exclusive to the ecological approach in each and
every case‚ but in their totality they amount to a
new way of looking at language learning.

18. 1. Relations
2. Context
3. Patterns‚ systems
4. Emergence
5. Quality
6. Value
7. Critical
8. Variability
9. Diversity
10.Activity

19. 1. Relations
Ecological linguistics (EL) focuses on language as relations
between people and the world‚ and on language learning as ways
of relating more effectively to people and the world. The crucial
concept is that of affordance‚ which means a relationship between
a learner and the environment‚ that signals an opportunity for or
inhibition of action. The environment includes all physical‚ social
and symbolic affordances that provide grounds for activity.

20. 2. Context
EL regards context as not just something that surrounds language‚
but that in fact defines language‚ while at the same time being
defined by it. A common piece of advice in research is to take the
context into account. Such advice raises questions like how‚ how
much‚ what aspects of the context‚ and so on. It also suggests that
contextual information is added on to whatever is investigated‚ in
a supplementary sort of way. But in ecology‚ context is the heart
of the matter.

21. 3. Patterns‚ systems
EL sees language as patterns of patterns that connect ‚
and systems of systems. Words like pattern and system
sidestep the notion of rules and structures. It means that
learning is associated with predetermined and
predictable states of affairs‚ situations that are more or
less fixed and that remain the same over time and space.

22. 4. Emergence
EL regards language learning not as gradual‚ linear acquisition‚ but as
emergence. Emergence happens when relatively simple elements combine
together to form a higher-order system. The whole is not only more than the
sum of its parts‚ it is of a different nature than the parts. The new system is on
a different scale‚ and has different meanings and patterns of functioning than
the simpler ingredients had from which it emerged. In language‚ grammar
emerges from lexis, symbols emerge from tools, learning emerges from
participation and Language proficiency emerges from all these
transformations.

23. 5. Quality
EL makes the notion of quality a central construct to be investigated. The
quality of educational experience is seen to be crucially different from
educational standards‚ though a valid ecological aim of education is to
harmonize quality and standards‚ by investigating both how they are different
and how they are related. It is obvious that quality of life is not the same as
standard of living. This view may be true in education: there may be so much
focus on higher standards that there are tougher and tougher tests all the time‚
and there is no more time for music‚ field trips‚ art‚ and just exploring
knowledge and broadening one’s mind.

24. 6. Value
EL proclaims that all action‚ all research‚ all practice‚ is value-
laden‚ value-driven‚ and value producing. It says that language
education is‚ in addition to whatever else it is‚ always also a
science of values. EL asserts that we can – and should – define
science and its processes of production and consumption, in a
different way‚ as a critical and moral enterprise (Reed‚ 1996).

25. 7. Critical
If we look at language learning from a contextual perspective‚ if
we put quality before quantity‚ and if we focus on value and
values rather than on so-called objective facts or the status quo‚
then it is inevitable that our approach will be a critical one. In
other words‚ we will examine to what extent educational
practices further the specific goals and ideals that we have
articulated.

26. 8. Variability
There are many differences among learners that are
relevant to their educational opportunities in general‚
and their classroom learning opportunities in particular.
A good teacher understands the learners‚ and this means
taking the differences into account.

27. 9. Diversity
Diversity relates to variability‚ but it is not the same. Whereas
variability relates to the ways different learners learn‚ and what that
means for the teacher‚ diversity addresses the value of having
different learners and teachers in a class or school‚ and in more
general terms‚ different kinds of people in a society‚ rather than a
homogeneous population‚ however defined. In addition‚ the language
to be learned is presented as one that is not one monolithic
standardized code‚ but a collection of dialects‚ genres and registers.

28. 10. Activity
EL studies language and language learning as areas of activity.
Gone is the picture of a classroom with rows of empty heads
passively soaking up knowledge issuing forth from the talking
head at the front of the room. Instead‚ we visualize a community
of practice in which learners go about the business of learning by
carrying out activities of various kinds‚ working together‚ side by
side‚ or on their own. In this ecosystem‚ learners are autonomous‚
that they are allowed to define the meaning of their own acts
within their social context (Van Lier, 2002).

29. The ecological perspective for language
education:
1. Standards do not equal quality.
2. The quality of education cannot be measured by
test scores.
3. Some of the most important indicators of
educational quality can-not be measured
quantitatively.

30. 1. Standards do not equal quality
As the founder of the deep ecology movement, Arne Naess, has
pointed out that standard of living does not equal quality of life.
He argues that our relentless pursuit of the former has over time
had significant negative effects in terms of living and working
conditions on large parts of the planet.

31. 2. The quality of education cannot be measured by
test scores
The ancient debate over the effects of large-scale tests on the
quality of education has heated up again in the USA with the
advent of the NCLB act (No Child Left Behind). There are
different views on this, but there is little doubt that high-stakes
tests lead to teaching to the test, and teaching to the test
diminishes the quality of education.

32. 3. Some of the most important indicators of educational
quality can’t be measured quantitatively
In education, we might say that there are activities that reap and
others that sow. The reaping type of activities tend to be those
that are immediately demonstrable and perhaps testable, such as
clearly defined skills, but the sowing activities tend to bear fruit
much later, possibly in ways that can no longer be traced back to
the original sowing event (Kramsch, 1998).

33. Ecological Implication for foreign
language educators:
 Becoming teachers of meaning
From an ecological perspective, both teachers of
English and teachers of foreign languages are not
teachers of a linguistic code but teachers of
meaning. Meaning in all its stylistic choices and
variations.
For foreign language teachers, here are a few
examples to illustrate some of the ecological tenets:

34. Meaning is relational/multidimensional
Meaning is mediated
Meaning is multiscalar and recursive
Meaning is emergent
Meaning is unpredictable and double-voiced
Meaning is fractal
Meaning is subjective
Meaning is historically contingent
Meaning is reflexive (Kramsch, 1998).

35. Conclusion:
An ecological approach offers a more sober view of the benefits of
learning foreign languages. It reminds teachers and educators that there
is more for students to understand about Language. There is much to
language learning and teaching that is not measurable by standards of
proficiency and that cannot be taught directly, only modeled and
reflected upon. Foreign language educators might have to operate in the
interstices of institutional guidelines and testing mandates. And the final
point, paraphrasing the Bakhtin translator one could say that:
‘curriculum guidelines and national standards are not everything that a
monolingual worldview may be overcome’(Kramsch, 1998).

36. References:
Bruner‚ J. (1976). Actual minds‚ possible worlds. Cambridge‚ MA: Harvard University Press.
Flynn‚ P. J. (1991). The ethnomethodological movement: Sociosemiotic interpretations. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter. University Press.
Gibson‚ E. J. (1991). An odyssey in learning and perception. Cambridge‚ MA: MIT Press.
Kramsch‚ C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Krashen‚ S. (1985). The input hypothesis. London: Longman.
Reed‚ E. S. (1996). Encountering the world: Toward an ecological psychology. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Scollon‚ R. (1976). Conversations with a one-year old. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.
Van Lier‚ L. (2002). An ecological-semiotic perspective on language and linguistics. In C.
Kramsch (Ed.)‚ Language Acquisition and Language Socialization. Ecological
perspectives (pp. 140-164). London: Continuum.