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A study of oral academic presentation tasks from a language socialization perspective

University of British Columbia

This study explored the language socialization of university graduate students through their exposure to and participation in oral academic presentation tasks. Recently, classroom tasks have received increasing attention as a research topic in second language learning literature. The majority of task-based research has stemmed from the input/interaction approach in second language acquisition where experimental tasks are often employed to determine task features which facilitate conversational interactions and, presumably, acquisition. However, such research does not take into account the fact that a classroom is a unique social, cultural, and historical context and that student tasks employed there have layers of meanings, purposes, and histories. This study thus investigated normally occurring classroom tasks from a sociocultural perspective. By taking an ethnographic approach and using data mainly from classroom observations, video-recordings of student presentations, interviews, and questionnaires, the study examined the social, cultural, historical, and cognitive aspects of language learning in relation to the oral academic presentation task. Forty lessons in two graduate seminars were observed for a school year (over a seven-month period). Twentyfive presentations performed in these courses were recorded and transcribed. The presentation discourse was then analyzed as embedded in the local culture of graduate seminars, being linked with ethnographically derived information. The qualitative analysis of the oral academic presentation task suggested that the task was a socioculturally organized activity with specific goals, meanings, and histories, and constituted a rich locus, medium, and resource for the graduate students' language socialization. Students gradually became socialized into the academic culture of graduate school through their repeated participation in this activity. The complex and dynamic nature of the activity was also highlighted. Finally, implications for L2 learning and teaching were suggested with respect to (1) the need to re-examine the "native speaker" versus "non-native speaker" dichotomy, and (2) possible ways to increase non-native speakers' awareness of the tacit norms and skills of interaction involved in academic oral practices.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4709

Language and Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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