Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts (Second Language Acquisition, 96, Band 99) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178309530X ISBN 13: 9781783095308

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

This book addresses issues of authenticity and interaction in second language contexts from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Contributions focus on authenticity as it relates to patterns of language and meaning, and to agency, identity and culture, and examines authenticity in both classroom and study abroad situations.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rémi A. van Compernolle is Assistant Professor of Second Language Acquisition and French & Francophone Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. His research interests include sociocultural psychology, second language development, pedagogy and assessment, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and interactional competence. He is the author of Sociocultural Theory and L2 Instructional Pragmatics (2014, Multilingual Matters).

Janice McGregor is Assistant Professor of German at Kansas State University, USA. Her research interests include second language learning and use, study abroad and intercultural dimensions of language learning and use.

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Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts

By Rémi A. van Compernolle, Janice McGregor

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2016 Rémi A. van Compernolle, Janice McGregor and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-530-8

Contents

Contributors, 
1 Introducing Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts Rémi A. van Compernolle and Janice McGregor, 
2 Evaluating L2 Pragmatic Appropriateness and Authenticity in Synchronous Computer-mediated Strategic Interaction Scenarios Rémi A. van Compernolle and Ashlie Henery, 
3 Authenticity and Pedagogical Grammar: A Concept-based Approach to Teaching French Auxiliary Verbs Lawrence Williams, 
4 Sociolinguistic Authenticity and Classroom L2 Learners: Production, Perception and Metapragmatics Rémi A. van Compernolle, 
5 Learning Speech Style in Japanese Study Abroad: Learners' Knowledge of Normative Use and Actual Use Naoko Taguchi, 
6 Gender, Youth and Authenticity: Peer Mandarin Socialization Among American Students in a Chinese College Dorm Wenhao Diao, 
7 Authenticating Language Choices: Out-of-Class Interactions in Study Abroad Julieta Fernández, 
8 Authenticating Practices in Chinese Homestay Interactions Sheng-Hsun Lee and Celeste Kinginger, 
9 Metapragmatic Talk and the Interactional Accomplishment of Authenticity in Study Abroad Janice McGregor, 
10 Focus on Form in the Wild Gabriele Kasper and Alfred Rue Burch, 
11 Conclusions and Future Directions Rémi A. van Compernolle and Janice McGregor, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Introducing Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts

Rémi A. van Compernolle and Janice McGregor

Aim and Rationale of the Volume

The notion of authenticity has been a central, if variably interpreted, construct in much applied linguistics and second language (L2) research since the early 1980s, when Canale and Swain (1980) proposed an extension of Hymes's (1972) concept of communicative competence to the domain of L2 teaching and testing (see also Celce-Murcia, 2007; Leung, 2005; van Lier, 1996; Widdowson, 2007). In broad terms, discussions of authenticity typically center around the extent to which some use of language aligns with the lexicogrammatical conventions and/or sociolinguistic and pragmatic practices of native speakers of the language that learners are studying, in contrast to the (perceived) less-than-authentic representation of the language in pedagogical materials and classroom discourse. In addition, some treatments of authenticity in L2 contexts focus more on origins of language use: for example, pedagogical language is authentic classroom language, and L2 learner language is authentically the learner's language.

Drawing on work in philosophy, MacDonald et al. (2006) discuss these two broad types of authenticity as authenticity of correspondence and authenticity of genesis (see Cooper, 1983), respectively. Authenticity of correspondence refers to the extent to which the use of language corresponds to some perceived (and perhaps idealized) norm or convention. Authenticity of genesis refers to the idea that the use of language is authentic in terms of its origins, irrespective of its correspondence to some notion of norms or conventions. MacDonald et al. argue, however, that applied linguistics research has for too long focused on one or the other of these conceptualizations of what authentic language is, and that it is time for the field 'to synthesize these two accounts of authenticity' (MacDonald et al., 2006: 251). The objective of this volume is to respond to MacDonald et al.'s (2006: 251) critique of the 'one-sidedness' of L2 and applied linguistics research by showcasing original scholarship that synthesizes the concepts of authenticity of correspondence and authenticity of genesis as a dialectic – that is, as a unified whole – with specific focus on language teaching and communicative interaction in which at least one participant is using an L2/additional language.

An understanding of what counts as authentic language and interaction has important implications for L2 teaching and assessment, and the question of who counts as an authentic (native and/or L2) speaker can help researchers and teachers to understand learners as people (van Compernolle, 2014). Indeed, in our own research in classroom language teaching and pragmatics (van Compernolle) and study abroad (McGregor), we have often had to resolve (perceived) tensions between authenticities of correspondence and genesis (Cooper, 1983; MacDonald et al., 2006) with regard to the following questions: Does authentic learning in the classroom or in study abroad mean that students approximate native speaker conventions, or do they contribute to the authenticity of their language use and interactional practices in ways that may diverge with, but are no less authentic than, their native speaker counterparts? Can we conceive of L2 learners as authentic speakers of the language even if, in comparison to idealized conceptions of monolingual native speakers, they do not fully 'master' the grammatical, phonological, pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects of the language they are studying? Can classrooms and language learning materials be conceptualized as authentic in their own right, or must they correspond to some type of language used beyond formal educational settings? This volume is an attempt to answer some of these questions by bringing together different scholars working in a variety of contexts and with several languages (i.e. Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish).

The remainder of this introductory chapter has two principal objectives. First, we present a brief overview of some of the key concepts and challenges of exploring authenticity in language and interaction in L2 contexts. Secondly, we contextualize the contributions included in the volume in relation to these concepts and challenges.

Key Concepts and Challenges

Although the contributions to this volume address the issue of authenticity from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, three principal themes are common across all of them in one way or another: (1) What is authentic language? (2) Who is an authentic speaker? and (3) How is authenticity achieved?

What is authentic language?

As noted above, the view of authentic language that we adopt in this volume is one that attempts to unify the traditional, and bifurcated, notions of authenticity of correspondence and authenticity of genesis (Cooper, 1983; MacDonald et al., 2006). We can summarize our position as follows: authentic language entails patterns of language and meaning that are recognizable within and across communities of speakers and that are appropriated as one's own. This perspective recognizes that language users certainly have ownership over their language and the linguistic choices they make (authenticity of genesis), but at the same time, any speaker's linguistic practices can only be meaningful to the extent that they are interpretable by one's interlocutors (authenticity of correspondence). Language users have agency, but agency is socioculturally mediated (Ahearn, 2001) and is therefore afforded and constrained by historical, contextual and material circumstances, including what counts as a recognizable (or acceptable, appropriate, correct, etc.) pattern of language (van Compernolle, 2014).

This perspective on...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 178309530X
• ISBN 13: 9781783095308
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Herausgeber: Compernolle Rémi A. Van, Mcgregor Janice
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland