CMC as Written Conversation

A Critical Social-constructivist View of Multiple Identities and Cultural Positioning in the L2/C2 Classroom

Authors

  • Mary E. Wildner-Bassett University of Arizona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v22i3.635-656

Keywords:

CMC, critical social-constructivist approach, social interactions, interpersonal relations

Abstract

This article proposes a model for a critical social-constructivist (CS-C) approach to the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in language/culture education. CS-C theories emphasize a critical approach to social interactions, interpersonal relations, communication, and the influence that these activities have on learning. I will use the model to explore the extent to which CS-C approaches, especially in relation to the principles of connectivism, impact postsecondary language and culture education and its effects on identities within the constraints of a CMC institutional setting. Readers will participate in an exploration of new ways of thinking, learning, and teaching that emerge from the ecology of second language and culture classrooms integrated with CMC. There I have found the life experiences of learners and my own experiences as a teacher to be highly relevant to the learning processes at hand. I develop these explorations using global qualitative discourse-based analyses of selections from learner data produced in asynchronous CMC contexts over the course of 3 years. My focus is on the learning of culture rather than on second language acquisition in a narrow sense. Language learning and even language attrition are thematized in the learning ecologies that are my focus. This study does not, however, make any claims about language acquisition that are not mentioned in learners' own reflections. The data include written conversations produced in both English (often as the second language of the participants) and German (most often as a foreign language for the participants) using various platforms for asynchronous CMC interactions.

Author Biography

  • Mary E. Wildner-Bassett, University of Arizona

    Mary E. Wildner-Bassett is Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona. Selected publications include Improving pragmatic aspects of learners’ interlanguage (1984), Zielpunkt Deutsch (1992), Beyond chaos: Explorations in pragmatics and computer-mediated communication (manuscript in preparation), and many contributions to anthologies and journals on foreign language pedagogy and second language acquisition, applied linguistics, and computer-mediated second language communication. Her research interests include the pragmatics of foreign and second language acquisition, second language and culture acquisition and theory, discourse analysis—especially as it develops for computer-mediated communication—and social constructivist explorations in language and culture pedagogy.

References

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Wildner-Bassett, M. E. (n.d.). Beyond chaos: CMC and multiple literacies in learning environments. Unpublished manuscript.

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Published

2013-01-14

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Wildner-Bassett, M. (2013). CMC as Written Conversation: A Critical Social-constructivist View of Multiple Identities and Cultural Positioning in the L2/C2 Classroom. CALICO Journal, 22(3), 635-656. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v22i3.635-656