以語言社會化理論探究 「語言及文化多元性在英語課堂」之重要

Abstract

近年來因全球化的影響、地球村的來臨及網路的發達，來自不同國家的人交流比以往更加容易且頻繁。此種情況在教育圈裡亦是如此。在各國學校裡，已經有愈來愈多來自不同國家的學生和本地學生一起學習與交流。長久以來，西方國家已有許多研究，以雙語或多語主義來探究這些外地學生的學習與生活。然而，到目前為止，特別是在亞洲國家，很少有文獻探討此些擁有不同語言及文化背景的學生，當他們在課堂上如何與該國老師及同學交流與溝通。 因此，筆者就上所述就此深加探討，而本篇研究有兩個目的。一是乃要透過語言社會化的理論，來調查英語老師如何藉由使用不同語言將自己融入於課堂之中及學生社群裡，以便和學生建立起互信關係。二是探究在台灣的英語課堂裡，擁有多語言和文化背景的學生，使用了那些溝通策略以利他們之間的溝通與學習。 研究者觀察參與研究的一所高中僑生班級（共19位同學確認參加）及教授該班高中英語教師的上課狀況，以一個學期加以研究與探討，總共觀察了21小時。再者，為了更了解該名教師的教學及對僑生的想法，對老師進行了2次的正式訪談。其他還有多次與其他英文老師分享對僑生印象的非正式談話。此外，另加以田野式研究對學生的手寫學習回饋也有被影印蒐集，當作了解學生學習狀況的資料。 本研究結果有兩方面發現，一是從語言社會化的論點來看，該英語教師從一開始大量使用中文為主要授課語言，之後藉由自身的觀察與和僑生的互動，發現僑生對於單語的學習情境仍有困難，因此，她透過在課堂使用不同的語言，營造多語的學習情境，以降低學生的學習焦慮與學習負擔。而在整個過程裡，該名教師和學生的關係變得更親近，彼此也會在課堂上互相分享彼此所知。另一發現則是僑生使用四種不同的跨語言溝通策略，包含了再脈絡化 (recontextualization)、發聲 (envoicing)、互動 (interactional)、脈絡化 (entextualization)來和教室裡不同語言的同學溝通與學習。藉由這四種溝通策略，學生會利用自身的所有語言能力，製造令雙方都容易理解的溝通情境；透過他們表達的資訊裡，他們同時表達出自身的身分 (identity) 以及對事件的觀點；他們會發展出複雜且動態的溝通方式，以利於與他人溝通與學習；他們也會調整與修正自己的用語跟溝通方式。 對於相關研究領域來說，本研究提供了從非歐美研究情境下的語言社會化觀點，也點出了台灣需要增加關於課堂的多語使用及多元文化的研究。另外，此研究結果提供兩個主要在教學實務上的建議。首先，台灣的英語課堂應該要是多語的課堂，而不是只單用中文或英文當作教學的指導語。此舉不但可以增加學生對不同語言的接觸，也可以照顧到習慣使用不同語言學習的學生。第二，台灣的英語教師應該教導英語學習者，應該更是要把語言學習當作學習如何和他人溝通的方式。如此一來，英語學習才不會將僵化，只流於應付學校考試的工具。

Thanks to globalization, there are more chances for people to interact with people of different cultures. The phenomenon also prevails in all levels of schools. It has been a more common scene that students and teachers meet students from different language and cultural backgrounds. A great body of literature in the West has investigated these people’s living and learning through the perspective of bi/multilingualism. However, few studies have been done, especially in Asia, to examine how teachers and students interact with each other in language classrooms through the lens of language socialization. An aim of the study was to assess the influence of multiple language uses in class on an English teachers’ teaching and students’ learning in Taiwan. In addition, the present study hoped to investigate how an English teacher socialized herself into the multilingual and multicultural classroom. Participants are a high school English teacher and nineteen overseas Chinese students in their tenth grade, coming from different countries to Taiwan for learning Chinese. After receiving the English teacher’s consent, twenty one lessons of the class were observed in a semester. Moreover, to understand more about teachers’ teaching and attitude towards overseas Chinese students, formal interviews of the observed teacher were conducted and informal conversations with English teachers of the school also took place. Students’ written feedbacks were also collected to interpret these students’ learning conditions. The findings revealed that the English teacher socialized herself and was socialized by overseas Chinese students into a multilingual and multicultural pedagogy in a language classroom. She transformed from a teacher who mostly used Chinese in class into someone who used Chinese, English and other communication strategies in her English class. Furthermore, according to Canagarajah (2013) there are major four types of translingual practice. It happened that many interactions between overseas Chinese students’ correspond to the categories. All examples indicated that students would use multiple languages or adjust their habit of language use to achieve effective communication. Aside from examining the data of the study with related theories, the study also expected to contribute to the field of multilingual language socialization and translingual practice. The examples shown in the study revealed a teacher’s multilingual socialization in an EFL context. In addition, the various types of overseas Chinese students’ communication implied that thre were more than negotiation strategies and more multilingual and multicultural studies should be conducted in Taiwan. Two pedagogical implications arise from the present study. One is that English classrooms should be multilingual instead of monolingual in the future. It appears that it would be more appropriate for English teachers to allocate similar time for different instruction languages. The other is that English language learners in Taiwan should regard language learning as a way of learning how to communicate with others. When students communicate with others in a new language, they are also exposing themselves to a new culture and new ways of presenting their identity and voice. The results of the study hope to shed light on the development of teaching strategies that Taiwanese teachers can apply in multicultural classes in the near future.