This document discusses constructivist theory and its implications for research on foreign language methodology. It argues that constructivism provides a framework for linking qualitative, ethnographic research with cognitive research on foreign language acquisition. Constructivism views contexts and mental processes holistically and sees perception as the construction of meaning in educational and cultural contexts. The document advocates for qualitative research methods in addition to quantitative methods to better account for individual learners' interpretations and mental constructions of reality in different contexts. It explores how constructivism can inform research on topics like concept formation, attitudes, and subjective theories.

1. Context, Culture and Construction:
Research Implications of Theory Formation
in Foreign Language Methodology
By: Amirhamid Forough Ameri
ahfameri@gmail.com
Michael Byram Michael Wendt
May 2016
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2. Introduction
 Language is learnt in context.
 A constructivist theory of context includes both internal and external realities
 research methods are needed which can investigate the ways in which mental
processes turn reality into contexts.
 Traditional research paradigms that rely on concepts of objectivity are unable
to deal with this theory and qualitative research methods are also needed.
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3. Purpose of This Article
 To consider to what extent constructivist epistemology provides a solution
for achieving a link between qualitative-ethnographic and cognitivist
research on FL acquisition.
 Assumptions:
 institutional learning contexts have become more flexible and
 the focus has shifted from the teaching to the learner and his mental processes.
 Epistemological constructivism explains perception as the construction of
meaning in educational and cultural contexts.
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4. Language Learning Processes and Their Contexts
 In the last decades,
 previously familiar teaching and learning contexts were reorganised to be more
flexible, more complex and more authentic.
 There has been the requirement for learner orientation and facilitated learning
through action.
 Whereas cultural studies, role play, simulation, and intercultural learning
were exclusively oriented towards the target context, the individual learners,
their contexts and their individual learning processes were also emphasized.
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5. Language Learning Processes and Their Contexts
 Very few experts in teaching methods (Byram, 1994) emphasised that
temporary participation in everyday life of the target culture is indispensable
for intercultural learning as a process of socialisation.
 Research on FL learning should take into account both of these fundamental
directions in FL teaching methods.
research on the learning context research on the learning process
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6. Epistemological Constructivism
Living in two worlds: External and mental realities
 A holistic view of context and mental processes is crucial.
 Karl Popper’s (1972/1994) three-world-model:
 a physical world (World 1)
 the world of our interpretations, a subjective world of consciousness (World 2)
 the world containing trivial truths in the realm of logic (World 3)
 Constructivists consider ‘reality’ to be a subjective mental construction
guiding our actions in the external reality.
 Hence, reality is the area in which our mental processes occur.
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7. Perception is interpretation
 Our senses can receive energetic impulses from reality. But the structure of the field of
perception in Gestalt-theory terms, differentiation and recognition of similarities, are
cognitive abilities.
 From a constructivist point of view, meaning is not
 a perceptible feature of reality, nor
 of a succession of sounds or written characters.
 But we assign meaning to and interpret all objects and circumstances. Therefore, meaning
is a quality of the mental world.
 Subjective meanings are called ‘connotative’ and those made viable through
communication ‘denotative’.
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8. Context as ‘Cause’
 Research on FL learning is affected by the information processing paradigm.
 reality provides objective information.
 contexts are ‘causes’ for interpretations and perceived contexts are always
interpreted contexts (products of interpretation).
 If the description of the learners’ realities in their cognitive, emotional and
physical state is a task of language acquisition research, it has to direct its
attention towards the external reality of the learners as interpreted context
and towards their mental reality as interpreting context.
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9. Culture as a Discursive Construct
 Two different conceptions of culture:
 On the one hand, culture is seen as a distinguishable, homogeneous and
objectively describable or ‘essentialist’ system.
 On the other hand, it is understood as dynamically developing events which are
consequently only seized as momentary perceptions.
 Cultures constitute themselves dynamically in discourse.
 A discourse-analytical notion of culture would support the distinction
between macro contexts (organisations, institutions) and micro contexts.
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10. Culture as a Discursive Construct
 It would also facilitate the notion of the classroom ‘as a culture constituted through the
interaction of teachers and learners.’
 Furthermore, according to Fairclough’s CDA discourses are always structured
hegemonically.
 How far can communicative power be exercised?
 Intercultural learning is seen as a transgression of limits of socialisation into primary
communities and a move towards ‘the foreign’.
 FL instruction can contribute to this by conveying the understanding that one’s own as
well as the foreign culture are constructs (‘construction awareness’).
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11. The qualitative paradigm and the varieties of reality
Quantitative Methods
 Quantitative procedures reduce context,
mental realities and cognitive processes
to quantifiable data often presented as
input/intake to ensure the
generalizability of the results
 requires the testing of hypotheses, which
once formulated must not be changed
throughout data collection and analysis
Qualitative Methods
 The holistic description of concrete
people and specific contexts.
 the abandoning of typification
 The acceptance of the uniqueness of the
individual,
 a constant succession of hypothesis
construction and testing
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12. Subjectivity and authenticity
 The reality of contexts is an external reality interpreted by an observer. This
holds true for all participants in the research process.
 It demands from the researcher the depiction of his/her own reality, which in
turn has to be regarded as an interpretation as well.
 From this standpoint, qualitative research appears to be the most extensive
analysis of the interpretations of the subjects in the research process.
 Both the socio-cultural as well as the individual-mental dimension of
language acquisition need to be considered.
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13. Ethnomethodology and ethnography
 Ethnomethodology attempts to reconstruct the explanatory and interpretive
patterns of the members of a community and with this their patterns of
perception.
 Meaning, social realities and social orders are produced ‘locally’ and ratified
inter-subjectively.
 ‘Locally’ refers to the status of contexts.
 Qualitative ethnographic research analyses speech, text and non-verbal
expressions against the background of cultural structures or it attempts to
reveal cultural structures with the help of texts.
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14. Ethnomethodology and ethnography
 Both ethnomethodological as well as qualitative-ethnographic research are
founded on a theoretical concept of information processing which does not
differentiate between contexts and mental processes, and even ignores the
latter.
 Thus, an additional cognitive dimension is needed.
 This is only possible with the joint interpretation of qualitative data
obtainable with introspective methods
 for example, commenting on one’s own pictures or techniques of graphic
representation or with interview techniques.
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15. Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory
 What is called ‘interpretational pattern’ by Hu (2001) is seen here as the
individual and inter-individual construction of meaning.
 As a consequence, only
 the research participants’ interpretations of contexts,
 the observers’ interpretations of contexts,
their strategies of construction as well as checking viability
are ‘real’ in an empirical sense.
 Quantitative research seeing itself as ‘objective’ can, therefore, only provide
causes or opportunities for qualitative research.
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16. Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory
Epistemological Constructivism
As a Theory of Cognition
 confronts research on FL acquisition
with the problem of identifying complex
mental processes.
 Learning and resistance to instruction
could receive more viable
interpretations from a perspective based
on the constructive nature of the
cognitive system.
Epistemological Constructivism
As a Theory of Semantics
 directs the attention of research related to
FL learning to the mental constructions of
reality.
 Topics for research corresponding to this
perspective include
 Concept formation, attitudes, values,
self-assessment, professional concepts,
experiential knowledge, subjective
theories, etc.
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17. Aspects of a Constructivist Research Theory
 From a constructivist point of view, the validity of qualitative research can be
presumed if the research process is well-documented so that:
 all steps are comprehensible;
 the mental constructions of all individuals engaged in the research process
become clear in the interplay of stating hypotheses and scrutinising their
viability in the research process; and
 the reader can carry out their own interpretations.
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