Language As A Dynamic System

This artifact is Emma Snyder and my Curation Project titled "Slang & Social Distance Through Popular Culture." It is an Adobe Webpage discussing a curation of 45 sources (15 scholarly) pertaining to the importance of slang and profanity as a pragmatic function of language. Pragmatics in and of itself is complex and ever changing. This project demonstrates how investment in a community (such as the fandom of a show, culture surrounding a marginalized community, a generation who grew up on the internet, etc.) shapes one's identity and, in turn, shapes one's language use. According to Bonny Norton (1997), the sense of self is socially constructed and socially constrained. It is important for language teachers to imbue the learner with Knowledge, Analysis, Subjectivity, and Awareness of pragmatic utility in order to afford the learner autonomy in how an L2 affects and is affected by their sense of self in terms of investment, community of practice, imagined communities, and the right to speak. In the example of slang and profanity, a learner’s ability to wield a very powerful and evocative tool allows for them to build community within the L2. While a learner may purposefully flout the rules, the choice to do so knowingly is a trait of an expert speaker. This artifact, therefore, demonstrates language as a dynamic system.

This artifact is a comparative analysis between a childhood (ages 0-17) Heritage Language Learner in both an at-home/self-study context and an immersion school context. HLL is a severely understudied area of language acquisition. A Heritage Language Learner is not only difficult to clearly define, but is also difficult to study due to the vast variety in contextual and personal factors of participants. In this artifact I not only analyze these specific contexts, but I also look at how the sociopolitical and socioeconomic factors may generally complicate one’s willingness and ability to pursue HL proficiency as well as their community of practice. The interplay of Context Characteristics (quantity, quality, duration, and interlocutors) exemplifies a part of what makes language and language education a dynamic system. Each part contributes to the success of the learner. What makes this even more complex is that an individual learner may benefit from a different combination of these factors. This may also change at any time. 

This artifact is a context analysis titled “Culture & Education In South Korea.” This Adobe Webpage reflects my analysis of student motivation in the context of the South Korean education system. While this artifact was created in my undergraduate years, the topic and research carried through to my further research in the LTS program. Because I have been aware of the extreme classroom conditions and pressures often reported from South Korea, and because I want to teach there, I thought it was important for me to understand the many factors that will likely be affecting my students. Understanding these factors as well as the macro context surrounding these factors, I will be able to enter this teaching context with a better idea on what kind of support my students may need. As discussed in my analysis, there is a clear connection between the majority culture (Confucianism and Collectivism in this context), student motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic), and student wellbeing. This relationship reflects how language is a dynamic system in that language, culture, and identity are dependent and inseparable from each other. 

This artifact is from a seminar class on Heritage Language Learners. The purpose of this assignment was to find an article relevant to the topic of my experiment design proposal. My topic of interest was whether incorporating identity building activities in a Korean Heritage Language class would boost student motivation and proficiency. The article I summarized examines how student anxiety surrounding a foreign language classroom is inversely correlated to higher proficiency and progress in a foreign language class. For the context that I have focused on during my undergraduate years as well as through the LTS program (Korean EFL learners in Korea), the information from this study is useful and related to how classroom affect and student wellbeing is an important factor in student success (in turn, perceived success can also be a factor in student wellbeing and classroom affect). This relationship shows how investment, community of practice, and sense of self (a part of identity) are intertwined (dynamism).