Though there is an extensive literature on materials in language teaching, little if any of it examines the relationship between materials such as textbooks and the totality of the classroom experience. The present study makes use of the concept of classroom ecology (Tudor, 2001; van Lier, 1996) to explore the interrelationships among materials and other crucial elements in an advanced ESL grammar class offered in the Intensive English Program of an American university. We focus in particular on the ways in which the textbook—Azar's (2002) Understanding and using English grammar—constituted the de facto curriculum of the course, and how it provided structure for the majority of the classroom interaction. Finally, we speculate on the relationship between the materials and language learning in this classroom. We argue that the framework of ecology, with its emphasis on affordances and emergence, provides a compelling lens through which to study the ways in which materials are actually deployed in classrooms, and how teachers and students conceive of the work being done there.
Language learning and teaching (LLT) materials—like teacher‐created handouts, textbooks, and overhead transparencies—are central elements of language classrooms worldwide. Nonetheless, how language students and teachers actually engage with and deploy LLT materials has rarely been the focus of research. In response, this issue offers the first compilation of classroom‐based studies of ‘materials use’ in language education and includes research on Ojibwe, Japanese, French, and English language pedagogy. In this introductory article to the special issue, we set the stage for the 7 empirical articles by offering much‐needed definitions for the concepts of ‘LLT materials’ and ‘materials use.’ These definitions are based on a metasynthesis (i.e., an integrative qualitative analysis) of all of the materials used throughout the 7 empirical articles. Additionally, we explore sociomaterialism as a compelling and well‐suited framework for the study of materials in use. Sociomaterialism is not a unified theory but rather a research orientation that seeks to examine connections between the social and the material world. In addition to substantively and theoretically advancing the field, all the articles of this special issue also have practical implications for language pedagogy.
Materials use is a critical yet poorly understood dynamic of language classrooms. This study examines ‘materials‐in‐action,’ meaning how materials shape classroom interaction and activity, in a beginning‐level French‐as‐a‐foreign‐language classroom. The conceptual framework, ‘pedagogical ergonomics,’ similarly centers on materials‐in‐action, and more specifically on ‘intra‐action.’ This refers to actions, influences, engagements, and exchanges among (a) materials, and (b) the students and teacher. Polysemiotic analyses and action analyses of classroom activity were triangulated with interviews and focus groups. Findings first expound the pedagogical ergonomics framework as comprising intra‐actions among human and material ‘actants’ that are co‐substantiated with sociocultural and physical space. This involves the concept of ‘classroomscape.’ Then—drawing on pedagogical ergonomics—macro‐level analyses of materials‐in‐action reveal 4 genres of materials use, each of which influenced classroom activity and interaction differently. Additionally, micro‐level analysis reveals 3 polysemiotic patterns of materials‐in‐action: (a) cloze worksheet prompts that ‘mapped’ onto the students, (b) learners’ ‘snowball languaging’ in French—involving extended meaning‐focused descriptions of images—and (c) a physically dynamic information gap where students unexpectedly avoided using French. Additionally, this article hones the definition of ‘materials use,’ substantively focusing on activity and interaction. Theory and practice converge in pedagogical ergonomics, with implications for both.
This study on Yucatec Maya language planning analyzes the linguistic standardization process over a six-year period. The primary research site was the programa, a mandatory Yucatec Maya course for 1,600 Indigenous Education teachers in Mexico. Alongside this acquisition planning effort, other government agencies simultaneously produced an official standard Maya. Programa administrators who oppose official standardization made their own model of Maya in widely distributed government textbooks. Neither model was the main target of programa language teaching; the Maya of classrooms is characterized by vast variation. Although the government promulgated an official standard in 2014, standardization of Maya has not been attained. The difficulties of creating a popular standard by and for Indigenous language speakers are analyzed. Social networks upholding different models of Maya are examined through an economy of language planning framework that views language as social capital and integrates knowledge and learning economy concepts. This research presents the notion of social-linguistic orders to understand how different models of a language coexist and/or compete in a language planning endeavor.
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