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Enrico Grazzi

The Sociocultural Dimension of ELF

in the English Classroom

Notes on Chapter 3

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ELF and Sociocultural Theory

ELF should be considered, on a par with any other verbal language, a mediational tool that serves the needs of its speakers in social interaction and that is emergent in authentic communicative contexts.

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Focus on...

EFL

• The components of the institutional EFL (English as a Foreign Language) curriculum (e.g. language syllabuses, teaching materials, assessment tests, etc.)

• Interlanguage: the learning continuum and the students’ transitional competence.

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Focus on...

ELF

• An emergent language system determined by variable circumstances and affordances (e.g. the globalization of trade, Web-mediated intercultural communication, etc.) in real sociocultural practices.

• The verbal outcome of L2-users' real social practice, that cannot be taught as such.

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The convergence of EFL and ELF

EFL

ELF

L2-USERS’ PERFORMANCE

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Main objectives of this research

• To integrate social networking into ELT and bridge the gap between the scholastic dimension of EFL and the thriving reality of ELF.

• Exploit the high affordance of social networking to provide learners with a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

• To make suggestions about the role of the language teacher and the implementation of learners' ELF-mediated activities for social networking.

Even though most English syllabuses follow the communicative approach, learners hardly have any opportunity to use English for real communication within the institutional learning context of the foreign language classroom.

The Web, instead, provides access to a vast virtual space, open to authentic social interaction in a multicultural context that should be exploited by students of English.

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Social networking and ELT

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friendship

family relationships

chance encounters

Open source communities of

peers

common interests

What are communities of practice (Cop)?

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Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor: a tribe learning to survive, a band of artists seeking new forms of expression, a group of engineers working on similar problems, a clique of pupils defining their identity in the school, a network of surgeons exploring novel techniques, a gathering of first-time managers helping each other cope. In a nutshell:Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Etienne Wenger, http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

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As members of a Cop, L2 learners can exploit the potential of their collective intelligence first by sharing their views on their favourite books and then by writing collaboratively, using ELF as their contact language.

L2 learners, literature and a community of practice

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L2-users as a community of practice (Cop)

A few classes of English learners from Rome, Palermo and Messina have been turned into a community of practice who exploit the potential of their collective intelligence:

• by sharing their views on their favourite books

• by writing brand new passages of their favourite books collaboratively

• using ELF as their contact language

• being open to any contributions from the wider community of social networkers drawn by the same interests

• sharing their peers’ advice and feedback in a ZPD

Literature and the internet

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The case of aNobii:

List books,

Share thoughts,

Meet people.

"aNobii provides as much of a books community as you'll find anywhere" - Lifehack

/http://www.anobii.com

Advantages of using aNobii

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• Improve learners’ reading and writing skills.

• Promote the use of English as a contact language for authentic communication within an international community of readers who share the same interests.

• Present a different approach to reading as a social event that promotes the horizontal sharing of ideas and experience.

• Make students discover fields of potential interest to them.

• Promote reflective learning/teaching as a process of cultural awareness.

Book Review – Giulia – Harry Potter

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I love all of the saga of Harry Potter. I read all the seven books in Italian and only this summer I started reading the saga in English with the third book, Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, because it was a birthday gift of mine. Maybe this is the Harry Potter's book I like less, but I enjoyed reading it in the same way. This is a middle book, so it isn't full of particular events that could cought the reader that much, for me. Yes, there's the apparition of Sirius Black, that apparently tries to kill Harry ( I like the fact that at the end e understand that Sirius is good and not evil) and that causes some moments of suspance, but we don't see Voldemort at all in this book and that brings me to miss this evil character. In fact for me the one thing missing in the story is a real antagonist. One of my favourite part of the book is the one linked to the Time-Turner, that shows us the theme of the trip in the past for trying to delete and to modify some errors made.

B.R. - Francesco – Lord of the Rings

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i read it several times in italian and now i'm doing it in english. the story is fantastic because it is beyond space and time and deals with themes of every age. what makes it enjoyable by everyone is that it contains both the mighty of the Kings and the "simple" of the country. I often think of great battles and of the ancient glory of Gondor reading the appendix. But the chapter I like the most is three is company: an innocent and merry journey through a beautiful and peaceful land, with just an unknown shadow that makes it an adventure. There is too much to say and I will enjoy to have a discussion with someone very much, so every feedback is most welcome.

B.R. – Sara – Alice in Wonderland

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ALICE IN WONDERLAND’S REVIEW Alice in Wonderland is a book that would seem for children, but it isn’t at all. All the story is based on odd characters and apparently nonsense dialogues. It is full of allusions to characters, proverbs and events of the period in which it was written. It has been interesting try to find and understand the many hidden meanings and I think that just if it is read in the original language it’s possible to enjoy all the puns. In some passages I found it not very fluent and so quite boring.  

B.R. – BenedettaThe Picture of Dorian Gray

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I really believe that we cannot help but read this book, this masterpiece. Many times it happens to all of us to ask questions about why we accept renunciations and many times we let our body can find relief in the pleasure of the senses, in vices, smoking, food, alcohol, drugs, and lose contact with reality often become almost a requirement; but at one point, however, life presents his account, and then you cannot back down. Perhaps the reason why The Picture of Dorian Grey is a book that you have to read so deeply, all in one breath, is that although we try to hide the weaknesses of our body, which then are the weaknesses of our soul, sometimes the need to become aware of it cannot be postponed. We cannot always hide behind excuses and masks and then reading those exceptional words that Oscar Wilde put together seems to give relief, because, even if for a few chapters, it feels the fragilities of each share, as if the fact that others also test them is able to justify them. The ending is really, in this context, an explosion. For Dorian, for Oscar Wilde, especially for the reader, at least for me it was so.If you start to read this book, it is impossible to detach from it without first having reached the last page and this such a involving reading is due to the incredible exaltation of senses and reason it causes. This is the astonishing greatness of this work, because when you read The Picture of Dorian Grey limits just become soft edges, the reader becomes Dorian.

B.R. - Arianna - Feedback

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I'm agree with you on the contrast between appearance and essence, this should make us reflect on what is happening in our life. In this society is to prevail the appearance and this book should be an example on this subject! You are right! Unfortunately our society gives more importance to appearance nowadays, and I don't like this very much.

B.R. – Silvia The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Dorian has made a pact with the devil, and while the picture shows the signs of advancing age, Dorian those signs of immorality. Talk of the passage of time thus leading to the end of beauty and Dorian did not accept this. Is a very good book for me also philosophical significance that should make us reflect much.There are many words to the effect that struck me very much!!!!!! Is a book that at the same time suggests many things, but I prefer the yellow over philosophical books, it's a passion that I have!   Feedback from Miro 92Maybe being forever young and beautiful could be really interesting for many people but everything has the other side of the coin. Dorian is obsessed by his beauty and by the fear to lose it!

B.R. - Anna Lucia – Animal Farm

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 Animal Farm of George Orwell is a brilliant satire on the corrupting influence of power. It is also an allegory of politic and talk about Mr Jones and his Manor in England. Farmer Jones swills whiskey and abuses his animals–including pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs. One evening, Old Major, a wise pig who is dying, sows the seeds of revolution. He tells his barnyard comrades that they can enjoy peace and prosperity, every animal sharing equally in the benefits of the farm, if they overthrow Jones and run the farm themselves. The old pig even teaches them a rallying song. Days later, after Old Major dies, the animals plot the rebellion, led by the most intelligent among them, the pigs–in particular, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer.When the animals take over the farm, they think it is the start of a better life. Their dreams is of a world where all animals are equal and all property is shared. But soon the pigs take control and one of them, Napoleon, becomes the leader of all the animals. One by one the principles of the revolution are abandoned, until the animals have even less freedom than before.

B.R. – GiorgiaThe Picture of Dorian Gray

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 I really enjoyed this novel because it struck my curiosity. Reading through fine, I tried to immerse myself in Dorian. This book is the contrast between appearance and essence. between what is visible to the eye and what is hidden inside each of us. The most beautiful is the painting when it breaks and dies. From this we understand that the true picture of Dorian Gray is a man without scruples, who managed to escape all but the mirror of his conscience

Collaborative Writing

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Projects works include:

film and book reviews

tour guides and diaries

mini sagassequels of popular

books that students have read.

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Collective writing, fanfiction and ELT

A new mythopoiesis

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Today, the creation of new

literary myths has received

a substantial boost thanks

to the internet, giving rise

to a fresh epic form that is

going to shape a novel

cultural tradition based on

collaboration and mutual

support.

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Our community of practice on Wikispaces

http://fanfiction-roma-palermo.wikispaces.com/

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The process within our activity Mediating Artifacts

word processor; social networks; wiki; ELF

Subject

EFL - ELF

Object

Developing creative collaborative writing and media literacy

Outcome

intercultural communication; progress in EFL and ELF; construction of ZPD; improvement of communicative competence and cooperative practices

Rules

asynchronous writing and web-mediated interaction

Community

intermediate students; teachers; netizens

Division of labor

-teacher = facilitator; guidance; assessment

-L2-users = negotiation; collaborative writing; reciprocal feedback; assessment

Fanfictionhttp://www.fanfiction.net/book/

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• The Web connects groups of readers worldwide

• Love for literature is a driving force and source of inspiration for those who have become authors in their turn.

• Fans appropriate their favourite novels either by interpolating new parts into them, or by changing their original stories, or even by writing sequels to them.

• The relationship of an individual to content has been replaced by the participatory involvement of group members who contribute to the reinterpretation and progressive development of ideas.

• Fanfiction: creative writing as a social event that entails and promotes intercultural communication.

Starting up!

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In 2010, the first two classes that joined the project were asked to read two books during the summer holidays and jot down any impressions and ideas about them (e.g. introducing new episodes or changes in the stories). These notes were used the following school year to carry out their project-work on fanfiction.

www.collaborative-writing-ELF.wikispaces.com

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Collaborative writing and ELF on…

Wikis and ELT• Improve learners’ communicative

competence in a ZPD.• Promote the use of ELF in an

international Cop.• Promote a different approach to

reading/writing as a social event that favours the horizontal sharing of ideas and experience.

• Make students discover fields of potential interest to them.

• Promote reflective learning/teaching as a process of sociocultural awareness.

• Improve students’ media literacy and sense of responsibility as net-users

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The role of the language teacher

The teacher as facilitator:• filters the students’

contributions• orientates their

choices• gives advice• provides relevant

language input• assesses results

(together with the students)

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Conclusions

Collective writing and fanfiction are paving the way towards mutual understanding and intercultural communication, which are also two main objectives of ELT. Therefore, literature on the web should not be overlooked by language teachers, but rather be integrated within the foreign language syllabus to enhance learners’ competencies and support collaborative relationships.