Social Distance, Positioning, and Investment of an Arabic Student in a US Elementary ESL Classroom with Korean Peers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objectives The aim of this study was to examine how an Arabic student formed social distance from his Korean peers and positioned himself in an Elementary ESL classroom in the United States, and how his social distance and positioning influenced his ESL learning and construction of investment. The guiding concepts of this study were Norton Peirce’s (1995) concept of investment, which also served as a theoretical framework, and Schumann’s (1976) concept of social distance.
Methods One Arabic student in the fifth grade and his ESL teacher participated as main informants in this study, and four Korean students were secondary participants. In this qualitative research, data sources included nonparticipant classroom observations and interviews with the main participants. Thematic coding served as an analytic framework.
Results It was found that as the Arabic student formed social distance from Korean students, he had difficulty with language learning, suggesting that if he formed greater social proximity, he would have a more supportive language learning environment. Also, although his present positioning (Kayi-Aydar, 2014) as needing help in the ESL classroom may suggest a negative language learning circumstance for the Arabic student, the social interaction and community involvement of getting that help may broaden his learning spectrum and construction of investment. However, it is important to keep in mind that young students’ social distance and positioning is not fixed but keeps evolving in relation to social power (Norton, 1997), which may influence construction of investment.
Conclusions Thus, the ESL teacher’s role is critical, particularly the ability to provide diverse language pedagogies that are applicable to students who are in foreign situations like that of the Arabic student and other students.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Oral, Y., "“The Right Things Are What I Expect Them to Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom" 12 (12): 96-115, 2013

2 Cervantes, C. A. R., "The use of communication strategies in the beginner EFL classroom" 6 : 111-128, 2012

3 Kayi-Aydar, H., "Social positioning, participation, and second language learning : Talkative students in an academic ESL classroom" 48 (48): 686-714, 2014

4 Norton Peirce, B., "Social identity, investment, and language learning" 29 (29): 9-31, 1995

5 Schumann, J., "Social distance as a factor in second language acquisition" 26 (26): 135-143, 1976

6 박효나, "Social Identity, Power Relations, Social Distance, Investment, and ESL Learning among International Elementary Students in the US" 학습자중심교과교육학회 22 (22): 821-837, 2022

7 Gore, J., "Power/ knowledge/ pedagogy : The meaning of democratic education in unsettling times" Westview Press 271-288, 1998

8 Bourdieu, P., "Outlines of a theory of practice" Cambridge University Press 1977

9 Cummins, J., "Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society" California Association for Bilingual Education 1996

10 Norton, B., "Language, identity, and the ownership of English" 31 (31): 409-429, 1997

11 Bourdieu, P., "Language and symbolic power" Harvard University Press 1991

12 Bourdieu, P., "Knowledge, education and cultural change" Tavistock 71-112, 1973

13 Norton, B., "Identity and Language Learning : Extending the Conversation / Bonny Norton; afterword : Claire Kramsch" Multilingual Matters 2013

14 Park, H. -N., "Exploring South Korean Elementary EFL Learners’ Construction of Investment : The Roles of Student-Centered Instructional Strategies" Indiana University 2019

15 Lin, A. M. Y., "Doing-English-Lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds?" 33 (33): 393-412, 1999

16 Toohey, K., "Disputes in child L2 learning" 35 (35): 257-278, 2011

17 Terdiman, R., "Discourse/counter-discourse : The theory and practice of symbolic resistance in nineteenthcentury France" Cornell University Press 1985