Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom
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Diane Neubauer
Abstract
This exploratory case study responds to a call from Bell and Pomerantz (2016: 196) to consider how language learners develop the ability to play in a second language (L2) over time. This study tracks beginning learners (six adults, three adolescents) and their instructors in a Mandarin Chinese language class embedded in a six-day teacher workshop. Two video cameras and an audio recorder captured visual and spoken interactional data. We considered perspectives from Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition (CA-SLA) classroom research (Seedhouse 2004; Sert 2015; Walsh 2006; Waring 2013) while employing iterative reviews of turn-byturn interaction in the recordings and transcriptions. We identified a developmental trajectory of language play (LP) across the six days in which the teacher and student participants co-constructed playful routines as an integral feature of their classroom culture. In Bakhtinian terms, participants oriented to playful uses of language as “carnival” in which they temporarily suspended ordinary classroom roles and expectations (Bakhtin [1963] 1984: 7). Early stages included teacher-initiated incidents of LP; students became collaborators in and initiators of LP through multimodal communication and spontaneous L2 use. Students engaged in “double-voiced discourse” (Bakhtin [1934] 1981: 324), contributing both as typical students and as imaginative identities towards instructional goals through LP. This study offers empirical evidence of how L2 teachers and learners may take up LP. Implications include the value of imaginative, playful talk to afford beginning learners opportunities to engage in L2 comprehension and production. We discuss how teachers may learn to use LP in L2 instruction.
Abstract
This exploratory case study responds to a call from Bell and Pomerantz (2016: 196) to consider how language learners develop the ability to play in a second language (L2) over time. This study tracks beginning learners (six adults, three adolescents) and their instructors in a Mandarin Chinese language class embedded in a six-day teacher workshop. Two video cameras and an audio recorder captured visual and spoken interactional data. We considered perspectives from Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition (CA-SLA) classroom research (Seedhouse 2004; Sert 2015; Walsh 2006; Waring 2013) while employing iterative reviews of turn-byturn interaction in the recordings and transcriptions. We identified a developmental trajectory of language play (LP) across the six days in which the teacher and student participants co-constructed playful routines as an integral feature of their classroom culture. In Bakhtinian terms, participants oriented to playful uses of language as “carnival” in which they temporarily suspended ordinary classroom roles and expectations (Bakhtin [1963] 1984: 7). Early stages included teacher-initiated incidents of LP; students became collaborators in and initiators of LP through multimodal communication and spontaneous L2 use. Students engaged in “double-voiced discourse” (Bakhtin [1934] 1981: 324), contributing both as typical students and as imaginative identities towards instructional goals through LP. This study offers empirical evidence of how L2 teachers and learners may take up LP. Implications include the value of imaginative, playful talk to afford beginning learners opportunities to engage in L2 comprehension and production. We discuss how teachers may learn to use LP in L2 instruction.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction to heteroglossia and language play in multilingual speech 1
- Chapter 2 Getting serious about language play: Language play, interlanguage variation and second language acquisition 17
- Chapter 3 Voice, stance, and role in Chinese immersion second graders’ language use 43
- Chapter 4 Escríbalo en tu own words, güey 67
- Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom 91
- Chapter 6 Translanguaging and language play 117
- Chapter 7 Language play and social positioning in L2 narrative retells 137
- Chapter 8 Channeling Charlie: Suprasegmental pronunciation in a second language learner’s performance of others’ voices 161
- Chapter 9 Coda: Pedagogical implications and applications for language play beyond second/foreign language learning 191
- Subject Index 205
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction to heteroglossia and language play in multilingual speech 1
- Chapter 2 Getting serious about language play: Language play, interlanguage variation and second language acquisition 17
- Chapter 3 Voice, stance, and role in Chinese immersion second graders’ language use 43
- Chapter 4 Escríbalo en tu own words, güey 67
- Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom 91
- Chapter 6 Translanguaging and language play 117
- Chapter 7 Language play and social positioning in L2 narrative retells 137
- Chapter 8 Channeling Charlie: Suprasegmental pronunciation in a second language learner’s performance of others’ voices 161
- Chapter 9 Coda: Pedagogical implications and applications for language play beyond second/foreign language learning 191
- Subject Index 205
