Creating Communities: The L2 Self and ICT in an EFL Classroom

Developing communicative skills in English where it is a foreign language is a frustrating challenge for the L2 learner. Information and communication technologies (ICT) offer the possibility for L2 students to develop those skills collaboratively. The purpose of this article is to share the idea of building a student-centered community online where the students use the Internet as a creative space to develop their L2 identities. In this project, a first-year university class at a Japanese women’s college used blogging as a space to develop and communicate their learning experience in English. A second class used video screen capture software to record a news report and then share their imagined L2 identities with the first class via the blog. By the end of term it was revealed that the learners’ positive response to this project could be an instrumental approach to developing autonomous L2 communities beyond the classroom. The continuing significance of English as a common tongue for global communication is well documented (Kirkpatrick, 2007, 2011; Ryan, 2006, 2009; Seidlhofer, 2004). Although the number of native speakers of English is declining, by 2050 half the world is expected to be using English to some extent (Graddol, 2003; Johnson, 2009). This prediction is due in large part to the continuing dominant role that English plays in the areas of science and technology, international / local business, and global communications. With the push towards globalization, the need for communicating in English has influenced many national educational policies to develop teaching methods to address that need. A pedagogical approach to teaching English to non-native speakers in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) environment is challenging. Unlike the ESL (English as a Second Language) setting, the EFL environment outside the classroom does not easily reinforce nor support the development of the necessary language skills required for effective communication. Access to the target-language community is either not readily accessible or may be financially unattainable. The development of Web 2.0 technologies, along with growing access to the Internet, is bridging that gap. Preparation for communication via the Internet requires important pedagogical considerations. This project will show how the use of Information and communication technology (ICT) tools can be balanced with a theoretical framework that considers the following: imagined communities, the L2 self-motivational system, and ICT in education. Language Education in Asia, 2013, 4(1), 88-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/13/V4/I1/A7/Ferreira Language Education in Asia, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2013 Ferreira Page 89 Theoretical Framework The following section discusses three theoretical concepts that are instrumental to creating a stimulating framework for EFL students to develop their skills using Web 2.0 technologies. Imagined Communities Discussions of group dynamics in relation to how they affect learner motivation have tended to focus on the immediate classroom environment in which learning takes place (Dornyei & Murphey, 2003). Arguably, learning concerns not just the acquisition of language skills but the engagement with others who share in the same “situated learning” context (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Anderson (1991) coined the term “imagined communities” to explain how national identity can give one the sense of belonging with those they have yet to meet and are removed from in space and time. Kanno and Norton (2003) call for a broader understanding of community that includes others who are “not immediately tangible and accessible, with whom we connect through the power of the imagination” (p. 241). Helping learners to imagine that they are part of a larger worldwide EFL network that goes beyond the space of the classroom is an important step to increasing their motivation to learn the necessary language skills they will need to communicate with an imagined community. Wenger (1999) points out that the power of imagination can be instrumental in transcending space and time to open up new worlds for learners. Instructors can assist the learners in the “learning trajectory” needed to reach out to a transnational global community that is “no less real than those in which the learners have daily engagement and might even have a stronger impact on their current actions and investment” (Kanno & Norton, 2003, p. 242). L2 Self-Motivational System The link between language identity in the foreign language context and motivation has been understood in L2 research for over 50 years (Gardner, 2001; Gardner & Lambert, 1972). While English remains the dominant language for globalization, the traditional concept that learners’ motivation for learning the language is integration with “the norm-developing inner circle countries” may not be entirely accurate (Ryan, 2006, p. 42). Lamb (2004) found that Indonesian learners associated English more with international culture than with any community bound by geographical location. Similarly, Ryan (2009) observed that Japanese students rated their reasons for studying English higher when the target culture was left “undefined” (p. 131). These studies present an important shift in our re-evaluation of the L2 self as a motivational system and how our learners identify with their sense of belonging in a global community. Perhaps what is really intrinsic to EFL students’ motivation in learning English is the opportunity it affords them to restructure “a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world” (Norton, 2000, p. 444). Dornyei and Csizer (2002) observe that L2 learners narrow the gap between the imagined self and the real self the more they engage in creative scenarios using the language. Research has also shown that another distinction known as the “ought-to self” controls against negative outcomes as the learners integrate their new identity into the present (Taguchi, Magid, & Papi, 2009). The role for the teacher is to help make imagined communities accessible for learners. Learners can then practice linking new words and honing new language skills through the creation of “possible selves,” as well as reaffirm and redefine their already existing L2 selves (Ryan, 2009).