Contradictions in learning to write in a second language classroom: insights from radical constructivism, activity theory, and complexity theory
Year: 2002
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study explores how a multi-theoretical perspective can help researchers \nand educators to move beyond descriptive analyses and toward an explanatory \nunderstanding of how students learn to write in a second language. The multitheoretical \nperspective included the three theories of radical constructivism, activity \ntheory, and complexity theory, as represented by Jean Piaget and Ernst von \nGlasersfeld, Yrjö Engeström, and John Holland, respectively. \nTaking a case study approach, this dissertation involved looking at how \ninternational students in a computer-assisted, first-year university rhetoric and \ncomposition course learned to write research-supported arguments in a second \nlanguage classroom at a major university in the Southwest over a period of one \nsemester. Data for analysis consisted primarily of audio-taped interviews with the \nstudents, samples of their writing, and the students’ observations and interpretations \nof their learning over the semester. \nThe major conclusion of the study was that contradictions were the sine qua \nnon driving force of learning in this class. Learning was not simply a straightforward \nprocess of participation but emerged nonlinearly as students reflected on and acted on \ncontradictions arising from perceived discrepancies between their present experiences \nand their previous schemas, including sociocultural schemas. Moreover, the nature of \nthe students’ learning was mediated by the sociohistorical influences they embodied, \nby the material and psychological tools they used, and by their interactions with other \nindividuals both within and without the classroom ecology. \nThus, by using a multiple theoretical perspective that shifts analysis back and \nforth among individuals, socially mediated practices, and underlying ecological \ndynamics, new insights can be gained of how students learn to write in a second \nlanguage, thus broadening our understanding of second language composition theory \nand pedagogy.
Author: Charles P. Nelson
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1924105024