The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

Mark Dressman, Randall William Sadler, Mark Dressman, Randall William Sadler

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781119472445
• eBook ISBN: 9781119472308
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Teaching Methods for Reading
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Authored by a prominent team of international experts in their respective fields, The Handbook of Informal Language Learning is a one-of-a-kind reference work and it is a timely and valuable resource for anyone looking to explore informal language learning outside of a formal education environment. It features a comprehensive collection of cutting edge research areas exploring the cultural and historical cases of informal language learning, along with the growing area of digital language learning, and the future of this relevant field in national development and language education.

The Handbook of Informal Language Learning examines informal language learning from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Structured across six sections, chapters cover areas of motivation, linguistics, cognition, and multimodality; digital learning, including virtual contexts, gaming, fanfiction, vlogging, mobile devices, and nonformal programs; and media and live contact, including learning through environmental print, tourism/study abroad. The book also provides studies of informal learning in four national contexts, examines the integration of informal and formal classroom learning, and discusses the future of language learning from different perspectives.

The Handbook of Informal Language Learning is an essential resource for researchers, students, and professionals in the fields of language acquisition, English as a second language, and foreign language education.

Part I
Theorizing Informal Language Learning

1
Motivation and Informal Language Learning

ALICE CHIK

Introduction

Many readers of this chapter may be lifelong language learners, and some may be experienced language teachers or may have taught others a language at some point in their lives. Whether the reader is a language learner or teacher, it is fair to say that the motivation to learn a language is an elusive construct. A learner may have the motivation to learn the English lyrics from his/her favorite rap songs but may not apply the same drive to writing an English assignment (Benson 2015). Another learner may have excelled in written English assignments but may lack the motivation to extend his/her English learning in informal contexts. Language learners also share language‐learning experiences outside of a language classroom. Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) point out that there is no one definition of the term motivation and assert that it relates to “the choice of a particular action, the persistence with it, [and] the effort expended on it” (p. 4). Language learning is moving increasingly from formal to informal contexts, both at individual and societal levels. Learners are therefore more likely to choose a “particular action” from a wide range of options, which then impacts the “persistence” and “effort” they associate with the action. The proliferation of online language learning websites and social network sites could mean that learners increasingly extend or complement their formal language‐learning practices using these technological platforms. It is likely that the learners act very differently in an informal learning environment than in the formal learning environment of the classroom (Boo et al. 2015). By extension, the language learner's motivation would have to be examined differently because of the differences in the learning contexts.

Second language motivation in the classroom

Early studies of learner motivation in second language learning contexts have gravitated toward a reductionist approach with the use of quantitative instruments to focus on cognitive measurements. The work of Gardner and Lambert (1972) focuses on the interplay between attitude, motivation, and second language achievement. The authors located their work in the bilingual context of Canada, reasoning that second language learning is relevant to intercultural communication. This focuses the discussion on integrative and instrumental motivation – whether the motivation to learn a language is to integrate with the members of the target language community, or to achieve other more pragmatic types of benefits. This line of reasoning is not without its criticism, especially in terms of measuring second language acquisition by learners against native‐like competence (Coetzee‐Van Rooy 2006). However, conceptualizing motivation as instrumental has foregrounded research on the use of motivational strategies in language teaching. Such strategies are defined as pedagogy used to “consciously generate and enhance student motivation, as well as maintain ongoing motivated behavior and protect it from distracting and/or competing action tendencies” (Dörnyei and Ushioda 2011, p. 103). Based on Dörnyei's (2001) taxonomy of teaching strategies to motivate learners, researchers have sought to identify the strategies which may or can work in a classroom setting, and how language teachers can shape the classroom context to motivate students (Cheng and Dörnyei 2007; Guilloteaux 2013). Even though teaching strategies to motivate learners can be “traditional” (changing teacher behavior) or “innovative” (using learner‐centered pedagogy), the pointed focus on what happens in the classroom suggests that these strategies still primarily depend on what a teacher does to motivate the students (Bernaus and Gardner 2008). Nonetheless, research in this area continues to move the discussion beyond the teacher's role in the classrooms to also consider the institutional contexts for “spaces for maneuver” (Glas 2015, p. 2). Bernaus and Gardner (2008) have also reported, however, that students do not necessarily consider the strategies to be useful, and that teachers and students do not agree on what strategies are useful. It is only when students recognize and relate personally to these strategies that a positive effect on motivation and achievement can be obtained.

Motivation as L2 self and identity development

The point then is clear: language teachers do not have complete control over learner motivation. Learner perceptions and understandings of their own language‐learning processes and outcomes have to be considered in L2 learning motivation. Thus, constructs of self and identity have become increasingly dominant in the field, and the theory of possible selves provides a future projection, development, and orientation (Markus and Nurius 1986). The possible selves reside in the imaginations of the learners; for instance, a teenage Japanese learner of English imagining herself using her newly learned English to chat with another coffee drinker while waiting for her order at a Starbucks outlet in an American city. The imagery may not be relevant to the school‐aged teenager at present, but the imaginings around having a social conversation in a café are as real to her as her current everyday experience in Japan. In turn, the imaginings provide a future orientation for the teenager and thus motivate her to learn English.

Informed by the possible selves theory, the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei 2009) proposes three main constructs: the Ideal L2 self, the Ought‐to L2 self, and the L2 learning experience. The Ideal L2 self refers to the learner's personal imaginary of having the attributes of a competent L2 user, which can be utilized for personal purposes in the future. These attributes need to be personally relevant (e.g. the social conversation in a café or an Australian Korean learner wanting to be able to sing a K‐pop song in Korean). The Ought‐to L2 self is similar to the Ideal L2 self except that it is directed toward meeting social or institutional expectations. The same Japanese English learner's idea of speaking spontaneously in a café and the attributes needed to fulfill this imaginary may not align with the requirements of the university entrance English examination for which she is preparing. Finally, the L2 learning experience is a situated learning experience that includes the learner's experience in a particular learning environment, both inside and beyond the classroom, as an individual or as a group member. This construct takes into the account both situated macro (e.g. curriculum, institution, school) and micro (e.g. teacher, classmates) structures. The two more salient constructs in the L2 Motivational Self System are the Ideal L2 self and the L2 learning experience and are most likely to be predictive of motivation and achievement (Csizér and Kormos 2009; Taguchi et al. 2009).

When a learner's personal future imaginary is an integral part of the motivational system, the issue of identity requires further attention. Norton's work (Norton 2000) demonstrates that learners construct their desired identities in imagined L2 communities. Such identity constructions are in constant motion and flux, both dependent on, and in response to, situated contexts (Block 2007; Menard‐Warwick 2009). An L2 identity has to consider globalization (Douglas Fir Group 2016) as it impacts learner motivation to learn a new language. This means that an increasing number of language learners are participating in English learning in institutional systems (Graddol 2006), as well as in informal settings (Reinders and Benson 2017; Richards 2015).

English learning beyond the classroom

To understand the extent of English language learning beyond the classroom and the importance and operation of motivation, this chapter draws on examples from and around the Duolingo learning platform. It is important to consider what learners are doing outside the classroom as not all English language learners have full access to formal English. Increasingly, learners are moving online to language learning social network sites (LLSNS) to access language learning resources and opportunities (C...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I: Theorizing Informal Language Learning
• Part II: Learning in Digital Contexts
• Part III: Learning Through Media and Live Contact
• Part IV: International Case Studies of Informal Language Learners
• Part V: Informal Learning and Formal Contexts
• Part VI: The Present and Future of Informal Language Learning
• Index
• End User License Agreement