Article
Listening to Dissonance in Second-Language Classrooms
Critical Inquiry in Language Studies
(2007)
Abstract
This article reports on a study investigating ways students from Japan studying English as a second language at an American community college encounter cultural dissonance in their classroom interactions. I take a sociocognitive view rooted in the work of Bakhtin and Vygostky to explore the ways language, culture, and cognitive processes interplay in the heteroglossic spaces of second language classrooms. Multiple data sources are analyzed using a voice-centered method (The Listening Guide) affording a window into the oftentimes taken for granted and implicit ways cultural dissonance impacts language learning. Findings suggest that utilizing dissonance to enhance rather than suppress target language dialogue requires(1) raising awareness of the ways teachers and students conceptualize the relationship of culture to language and (2) articulating strategies that provide spaces for multiple points of view around beliefs, values, and norms to be voiced.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2007
Citation Information
Kristen Campbell Wilcox. "Listening to Dissonance in Second-Language Classrooms" Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (2007) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kristen-campbellwilcox/39/