Literacy Education in an Ecological Perspective
Triple contexts of participation & language learning
Associate Professor Jeppe Bundsgaard (presenter) – [email protected] School of Education, University of Aarhus
Associate Professor Anna Vibeke Lindø – [email protected] Associate Professor Jørgen Chr. Bang – [email protected]
Institute of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark
Focus
• Ecological literacy education in an era of globalization and migration, especially the need for communicative competencies related to intra-cultural, inter-cultural as well as trans-cultural communication.
Challenge
• How does language education (mother tongue, second language, foreign language, cross language) contribute to friendly and fair cooperation locally and across regions, nations, ethnicity, sex and ages; and to a fruitful childhood, creativeness, democracy etc?
Dialectical linguistics
• Started by Bang & Døør• From end-60-ies-: Focus on language, order and power (class)• From mid-70-ies: Focus on sex and age (children)• From 1990-ies: Focus on ecology (ecolinguistics)• 2000-: Focus on trans-cultural communication og peacekeeping
dialogue.• Dialectical Linguistics argues for a politically and morally
responsible approach to language and linguistics – from our point of view, “a theory of language is part of a theory of life” (Bang & Døør 1998:7).
• Thus, no theory of language can claim to be neutral.
Dialectical models of communicationThe dialogue Model
Third subject (S3)
• The third subject is an ecological key concept– Child who overhears parents’ talk– Censor– Overarching subject (‘Das Man’, ‘you’, ‘man’)
• It reminds us of the fact that speech is never free, never neutral
• When you participate in a dialogue, you are responsible for the third subjects of the communication as they are involved in the dialogue
Core Contradictions
Core Contradictions
• Recursive base of the individual• Shows the complexity of the contextual dynamics• Medium for and a basis of experiencing, understanding and
interpreting ourselves, each other and our environment• Every situation, every dialogue is more or less constituted by
(and constitutes) the nine core contradictions• All core contradictions are present and connected as a
conjuncture of contradictions in every dialogue• They are more or less fore- or backgrounded in the situation.
The semantic matrix
Social sense and Individual meaning
• Social sense: traditional way a word is used among the individuals of a community
• Individual meaning: the word meaning an individual grows up with. (1) the normal way a person uses a word/text; and (2) the interpretation the person habitually uses in understanding other people’s use of the word/text.
• Relatively stable under different circumstances (time, place, situation). Part of the person’s identity.
Social import and Personal significance
• Social import: a more synchronic dimension of the communication. – The language use of a certain group, an institution or a discipline. Thus,
the use of the social import presupposes a common identification of the communicative context and situation.
• Personal significance is our contribution to the dialogue. – A person’s particular semantics in a specific context
• Personal significance and Social import: The actual language use. – The foreground of the communication. – The semantics of social sense and the individual meaning – the more
diachronic dimensions of the communication – are in the background.
Triple contexts of participation & language learning
Literacy education in the Danish Folkeskole (K-9/10) – from the viewpoint state
• “Danish/Purpose of the subject• The purpose of teaching in the subject Danish is to promote the students’
experience and understanding of language, literature and other modes of expression as sources of personal and cultural identity. The subject should promote the students’ ability of sympathetic insight and their aesthetic, ethical and historic understanding.
• 2. The teaching shall promote the students’ desire to use the language personally and many-sided together with others. The teaching shall strengthen the students’ mastery of the language and develop an open and analytical attitude towards the modes of expression of the contemporary and other periods and cultures. The teaching shall develop the students’ joy of expression and reading and qualify their sympathetic insight and insight in language, literature and modes of expressions.
• 3. The teaching shall give the students access to the Scandinavian languages and the Nordic cultural community.”
Some observations
• Mono-culture – of the nation state as if it was one culture (intra-cultural)
• Mostly formal contexts• More individual expressions, less collaborative communication• Language as system in focus. • Language implied being the Danish Standard Language. • A system to acquire.• Sensibility (sympathetic insight) mostly towards literature and
other kinds of one-way texts – less towards other people.• Focus on language use as a skill, not on communication as a
form of life
Cultural contexts
• Culture is– a group of inter-connected persons – with shared traditions (ways of doing, thinking, valuing, aiming) – and artifacts (tools, laws, institutions) – and often physical places and spaces.
• In this way a culture can be regarded – a homogeneous unit where members are assimilated and conform to the common
traditions; – But core contradictions constitute the relations of the members and thus a culture
is a dynamic unit. • Cultures can encompass cultures
– An ethnic group can encompass villages encompassing families. – Historically cultures developed in more or less closed circles with more or less
frequent exchange with other cultures. Today most cultures are highly interrelated due to the globalized market and communication.
Three proto-contexts
• Intra-cultural contexts– Contexts where the participants share deep identifications and understandings– family, tribe, peers; in some connections: the ethnic, religious, national groups
• Inter-cultural contexts– institutions which in formalized ways organizes the interaction between cultures– the state, school– the international market– the international organizations (EU, OECD, FN)
• Trans-cultural contexts– Members of two distinct cultures (families, villages, ethnic groups, etc.) meet
outside of formalized meeting places– Or where the formal frames does not meet their goals
Trans-cultural contexts
• Challenge of establishing a common ground of participation and communication.
• One of the most critical tasks of the highly globalized societies of today.
• Participants must transcend their own cultural background in order to develop a common ground where a new language is created, a language which integrates the cultures at play.
Triple contexts of participation & language learning
In tra-cu ltu ral
Tran s-cu ltu ral In ter-cu ltu ral
Ideo
logi
cs
B iologics
Sociologics
Some prototypical characteristics of the triple contexts of participation and language learning
Context Process Relation Prototypical communication
Function Approach Participation
Intra-cultural
HomogenizationIdentity
Ethics ConversationDeep semantics
Ritualization Solidarity (closed)
Assimilation & differentiation
Inter-cultural
EquilibrationCategorization
Politics DiscourseFormal semantics
Legalization Loyalty Negotiation & war
Trans-cultural
HeterogenizationIdentification
Crisis DialogueCreative semantics
Globalization Solidarity (open)
Integration & alienation
Processes
• Intra-cultural: Homogenization - Identity
• Inter-cultural: Equilibration - Categorization
• Trans-cultural: Heterogenization - Identification
Relations
• Intra-cultural: Ethics
• Inter-cultural: Politics
• Trans-cultural: Crisis
Three states of relations
• War – Destructive – War is to stay in a destructive state
• Peace – Positive– Peace is to stay in the positive state
• Crisis – Constructive – Crisis is a transition to another state
• Crisis is when nobody knows right away what to do.• Crisis is when the ways things are done until now does
not suffice to handle the ongoing changes.
Prototypical communication
• Intra-cultural: Conversation - Deep semantics
• Inter-cultural: Discourse - Formal semantics
• Trans-cultural: Dialogue - Creative semantics
Functions
• Intra-cultural: Ritualization
• Inter-cultural: Legalization
• Trans-cultural: Globalization
Participation
• Intra-cultural: Assimilation & differentiation
• Inter-cultural: Negotiation & war
• Trans-cultural: Integration & alienation
No pole of the triple contexts is inertly good
• Staying in either pole easily leads to the negative results
• Staying in the intra-cultural pole:– Monopolization of truth– Xenophobia
• Staying in the inter-cultural pole: – Certification– Technologization
• Staying in the trans-cultural pole:– Rootlessness
Dialectics of homogenization, categorization, and heterogenization
• Homogenization– Learning to speak in homeliness contexts assimilating oneself into the
language and world view of mother and father, the local community and the regional tribe.
• Categorization– Learning to negotiate in the common room of local, regional, national
and international societies, in the institutional contexts of bureaucratic discourse.
• Heterogenization– Learning to integrate differences and oppositions of language and world
views locally, regionally, globally, in order to be a part of a dialogue of change and solidarity.
Three languages
• Democratic literacy education relates to all three contexts and supports children and students in the development of languages and literacies related to the dominant languages and communication practices of each context:
• Mother tongue• Neutral languages (specialized languages (technical,
administrative, bureaucratic, etc.), standard national language, lingua franca (English)). Danish as second language
• Local and global common languages
Local and global common languages
• Created in the situation to communicate and mediate experiences and insights.
• In order to be able to communicate with strangers or friends with another mother tongue (another dialect, language, cultural or social background, etc.)
• Sometimes with the use of body language, some times using versions of English, some times with a national standard language etc.
Educational aim and objectives
• Sense and sensitivity– To support the student's development of sensitive sympathetic insight
into the meaning and sense of other people's utterances. Further development of the deep semantics.
• Discourse– To support the student's mastery of the 'neutral' language of core
institutional contexts. Argumentation, reasoning, criticizing. • Dialogue
– To support the student's development of the principles of democratic dialogue: 0) Who is participating in the situation? 1) What is shared in the situation? 2) What are the differences between the participants? 2b) What are the individual characteristics of the participants (“særhed”)? 3) How can we construct an experiment to develop our common practice in healthy directions and overcome oppositions?
References
• Bang, J. C.; Døør, J.; Steffensen, S.V. & Nash, J. (2007). Language, Ecology and Society. London: Continuum.
• Bang, J. C.; Døør, J.; Alexander, R.J.; Fill, A. & Verhagen, F.C. (eds.) (1996). Language and Ecology—Ecolinguistics. Problems, Theories and Methods. Odense Universitet
• Barton, D. (2007). Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language (2. ed.). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Bundsgaard, J. & Lindø, A. V. (2000): Dialectical Ecolinguistics. Three Essays for the Symposium 30 Years of Language and Ecology in Graz December 2000. Odense: Nordisk Institut.
• Fill, A.; Penz, H. & Trampe, W. (eds.) (2002): Colourful Green Ideas. Papers from the Conference 30 Years of Language and Ecology (Graz, 2000) and the Symposium Sprache Und Okologie. Bern: Peter Lang Publishing.
• Lindø, Anna Vibeke (2007): “Der stumme Gast: Das dritte Subjekt als ökolinguistische Schlüsselkategorie”. In: Fill, Alwin, Hermine Penz (eds.): Sustaining Language. Essays in Applied Linguistics. Wien, Austria: LIT Verlag (237-250)
