Learnables in Action : The Embodied Achievement of Opportunities for Teaching and Learning in Swedish as a Second Language Classrooms

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation is an empirical qualitative research study on the emergence of learnables in classrooms of Swedish as a second language. It adopts a dialogical and praxeological approach, and analysis is based on video recorded teacher-student interactivities in classrooms. Learnables are taken to be linguistic items or constructs that are displayed as unknown by students, or problematized by students or teachers, and therefore oriented to as explainable, remediable, or improvable. Learnables are introduced in planned or less planned classroom activities, either in passing, while continuing the current main activity, or in side-sequences. In these activities, teachers and students not only talk, but also use other embodied resources (e.g. pointing) or available artifacts (e.g. worksheets) to highlight linguistic learnables. Teachers and students use these resources for achieving and maintaining intersubjectivity as well as contributing learnables to the interactivities. Through manifest embodied practices, abstract linguistic learnables become objectified, and knowledge about them gets organized in and through joint co-operative activities.

Unpacking corrections in mobile instruction: Error-occasioned learning opportunities in driving, cycling and aviation training

“…In this vein, recent studies of social interaction have examined the organisation of instructional activities in a variety of settings such as classroom task instructions (St. John & Cromdal, 2016), craft education (Lindwall & Ekström, 2012), second language learning (Hellerman, 2007;Majlesi, 2014), computer-engineering courses (Vickers, 2010), surgical training (Zemel & Koschmann, 2013), pre-clinical dental training (Hindmarsh, Hyland, & Banerjee, 2014), dance lessons (Keevallik, 2010) and driving instruction (Broth, Cromdal, & Levin, in press;Deppermann, 2015;Gazin, 2015). While these studies represent an effort to explicate the participants' methods and practices that are pitched to enhance students' competence in some domain, very few studies have examined how such practices are organised in mobile settings where the participants operate inand act ona constantly changing physical environment (but see Broth & Keevallik, 2014;De Stefani & Gazin, 2014;Gazin, 2015;Juhlin, 2010;McIlvenny, forthcoming;Melander & Sahlström, 2009).…”

Learnables and Teachables in Second Language Talk: Advancing a Social Reconceptualization of Central SLA Tenets. Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The articles in this special issue scrutinize, through this CA‐lens, phenomena such as language planning processes, grammar tasks, defining vocabulary, corrective feedback sequences, meta‐linguistic explanations, and word searches. These issues are seen in the respective individual articles as observable and reportable through social practices in interaction directed toward identifying, understanding, and/or teaching linguistic items as learnables/teachables in the activities of language learning and/or use (Majlesi, , ; cf. Cohen, ).…”

“…CA‐SLA studies based on their empirical and emic approach to naturally occurring activities—usually in face‐to‐face encounters—have so far shown how learning or teaching activities are organized in and through talk and embodied behavior, both in classrooms and other contexts designed for pedagogical purposes (Eskildsen & Wagner, ; Hellermann, ; Kasper, ; Majlesi, ; Markee, ; Mondada & Pekarek Doehler, ; Seedhouse, Walsh, & Jenks, ; Sert, ) and also in the wild (Barraja–Rohan, ; Eskildsen & Theodórsdóttir, ; Hellermann et al., ; Sahlström, ; Theodórsdóttir & Eskildsen, ; Wagner, ). Attending to members’ displayed understanding in and through talk and other embodied behavior in interaction, CA analyzes social organization from within, adopting the perspective of the members in situ and investigating their sense‐making procedures and methods.…”

Engelska Hemspråk : Språk i interaktion i modersmålsundervisning i Sverige

“…Reflecting the wider trend among interaction studies focusing on a broad range of modalities aside from verbal interaction, studies of L2 classrooms are increasingly attending to the embeddedness of gaze, gesture, the use of artifacts and other types of embodied behavior (e.g. Belhiah, 2013;Majlesi, 2014Majlesi, , 2018Majlesi & Broth, 2012;Mori & Hayashi, 2006;Mortensen, 2008Mortensen, , 2009St John & Cromdal, 2016). Multimodal resources have also been examined in studies of Content and Language Integrated Learning classrooms (CLIL; see e.g.…”