教學大綱 Syllabus

課程簡介Course Description

語言教室裡最重要的人物應該就是語言學習者了。我們常聽到老師們習慣性把學生分成有動機與沒動機兩種、覺得他們好被動，沒甚麼自主學習能力。但是,站在學習者自我概念相關理念思考的話，就會知道這其實不是有與沒有的問題，學生的動機也好，自主力也好，不可能是固定不變的，它跟學生所處的社會文化場景有關，與學習者所認定的自我認定的概念形象身份 (identity)是連動的。而自我形象的強弱變化也常會引發學習者決定改變現狀，發揮出agency的表現。也就是說，學生願不願意「投資」自己的精力時間，是有很多環境因素的，教室裡的互動其實也沒那麼單純，不是有或沒有某些心理特性就可以了，更不是文法單字都搞定了，就順理成章可以所學的外語與人說話、互動。

The most important individual in a language classroom is definitely the learner. We often hear teachers habitually group students into the motivated and the unmotivated, and they complain a lot about learners’ being passive or having no capability for autonomous learning. However, if you have the concept of language learner self, agency, and identity, you would know that the psychological construct of motivation may not tell the whole story. The social-cultural context around the learner can greatly impact their identity and the way they invest their time and energy in language learning. We need to think beyond the surface-level observation and seek a deeper understanding of the socio-cultural reasons behind student behaviors and attitudes.

早期對學習者議題方面的研究著重於動機(motivation)、情緒 (所謂的affective filter)、焦慮感 (anxiety)、自主力 (autonomy)等相關心理概念，採的是比較斷面的思維與研究方法；不論是時間、歷史脈絡或社會文化場景都拒之於探討範圍之外，不太把這些議題跟學習者所處的社會文化環境想成是連動的狀態、也不考慮時間會帶來變化，更常忽略了屬於學習者經驗中的複雜現實層面。

Indeed, earlier studies on language learners tended to focus a lot on such psychological constructs as motivation, affective factors, anxiety, autonomy, etc. The more complex aspects of social, cultural, time and history surrounding the learner were often filtered out of the discussion.

1990年後期，衛考斯基社會文化理論開始發揮影響，才帶動的一股研究新浪潮。最近二十年因為Bonny Norton, Claire Kramsch, Leo van Lier, Gary Barkhuizen, David Block等諸多學者的研究與理論推廣，語言學習者自我概念方面的研究變得非常暢旺。

It was after the 1990s when Vygotskian Sociocultural perspectives became widely accepted by SLA/TESOL that we started to see new research foci emerging in the field. In the past two decades, Bonny Norton, Claire Kramsch, Leo van Lier, Garry Barkhuizen, David Block, and many other researchers made tremendous contributions in both theory and research that language learner’s self, agency, and identity finally became a heated line of research in SLA/TESOL. The number of book publications and journal special issues in the worldwide TESOL community is growing every year.

但是國外的研究，例如Norton著名研究中的加拿大女性移民經驗，強調學習者所遭遇到的角力關係(power)、社會階級(class)、人種(race)、性別(gender)等等議題，似乎與國人所關心的英語教學議題是有距離的，一般老師讀者可能看不出關連與真正的關鍵。The problem for us researchers from Taiwan, perhaps other parts of Asia and the world as well, however, is that the emphases of power, class, race, and gender-related to international identity studies are not that familiar. If you are a local language teacher, you would find it difficult to relate. There seems a gap between the issues that we are interested in and what the international research community is interested in. 

為了探索屬於國人的觀念連結，本課程指在帶領同學們進入這樣的新興研究領域。由閱讀別人的研究出發，並藉著實際進行質性個案與敘事研究，探索台灣如何在屬於我們的特殊歷史、社會、文化環境之下造就你我這樣的EFL學習者，而隨著時間與社會的變化，又如何讓我們的學生願意投資自己學習英文或者引起學生抗拒英語文、讓他們得以或者不能夠在各種不同的正式與非正式的學習情境之下 (如教室vs. 出國留學、打工、網路遊戲) 學習與使用英語文。如果你覺得聽起來有點複雜，那我要說，嗯，現實本來就是複雜的。別擔心，這正是這類研究有趣的地方。In order to make the link between the international research community and our own, this course aims to introduce the class participants to this recent line of research. This is an introductory (basic)-level graduate course. We will start by reading others’ work (journal articles and book chapters) and then move on to conduct a small study. Our goal is to explore through qualitative case study and narrative inquiry methods, for example, how Taiwan with its unique history, society and culture has managed to cultivate some unique language learning and teaching experiences. What stories are there behind those who traveled all the way from home to here to be our learners? Why are our learners willing or unwilling to invest in their language learning? Yes, it is a bit complicated. But, you know what? Life is always complicated. This is why the research of language learner’s self, agency, and identity is very interesting.