Social Structure, Agency and Languge Learning
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
14-1-2021 4:20 PM
End Date
14-1-2021 4:40 PM
Abstract
The broad aim of this study is to seek to establish and understand the relationship between agency and social structure in the language learning process. It therefore investigates and analyses the extent to which contextual conditions impact on language students’ desires to invest in language learning. The specific study is of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in the city of Cancun –a city consciously constructed as a tourist hub- in Mexico around 40 years ago. A Critical Realist theoretical and methodological approach was taken to investigate, using an ethnographic qualitative approach to collecting and collating the data. The range of data includes language learning biographies, interviews, visits to homes and workplaces, participant observations, photographs, online data (social media platform) and documents, to name a few. These were drawn upon in various ways (some more than others), and the use of critical realism to identify steps for analysis as data is coded step by step. Alongside the range of data, 11 student informants were taken for in-depth analysis to answer the overarching research question of ‘why do learners choose to shape or resist their access to EFL?
Keywords
agency, social structure, second language learning, critical realism, qualitative, ethnograpic approach
Social Structure, Agency and Languge Learning
The broad aim of this study is to seek to establish and understand the relationship between agency and social structure in the language learning process. It therefore investigates and analyses the extent to which contextual conditions impact on language students’ desires to invest in language learning. The specific study is of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in the city of Cancun –a city consciously constructed as a tourist hub- in Mexico around 40 years ago. A Critical Realist theoretical and methodological approach was taken to investigate, using an ethnographic qualitative approach to collecting and collating the data. The range of data includes language learning biographies, interviews, visits to homes and workplaces, participant observations, photographs, online data (social media platform) and documents, to name a few. These were drawn upon in various ways (some more than others), and the use of critical realism to identify steps for analysis as data is coded step by step. Alongside the range of data, 11 student informants were taken for in-depth analysis to answer the overarching research question of ‘why do learners choose to shape or resist their access to EFL?