Disrupting idealisations of communication in language learning pedagogy: Digital possibilities

Across the fields of science, there is a process where a scientific model makes deliberately false assumptions about the way the phenomena take place in order to generate models which are more easily understood and solved. Called idealisation (Nowak, 1980), a similar process can also be observed in the production and dissemination of language learning pedagogy, particularly in materials which take a structured approach to instruction such as textbooks.

This chapter draws on the notion of idealisation and Bernstein’s (2000) pedagogic device to conceptualise the way that certain ideological notions are instantiated through example interactions presented in language teaching textbooks. Although the creation of these idealisations can make the messiness and diversity of communication easier to teach and comprehend for an imagined audience, much as scientific models also need to simplify the complexity of actual phenomena. However, this process of pedagogisation creates “a space in which ideology can play” (Bernstein, 2000, p. 32) and the reliance in language education on the intuitions of experts rather than direct observation of communicative practices allows for the promotion and reproduction of ideological notions of language use, such as the primacy of particular linguistic varieties over others.

Using an example from Banno et al.’s (2011) Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese, I demonstrate how these idealisations of communication are embedded in pedagogical dialogues, with interactants using monoglossic ‘standard’ forms of speech which lack the linguistic diversity, disfluency and co-constructed nature of actual interaction. The authoritative and authentic way in which these dialogues are presented can contribute to understandings of the speech community’s practices which are unrepresentative of their actual communicative reality.

The advent of digital communications technology and the ensuing development of attendant social media platforms present opportunities to decentre more traditional language learning materials and pedagogy in the classroom. The ability to observe, analyse and participate in instances of communication among members of a speech community without the need for immediate temporal or spatial proximity opens up new possibilities for critical language education. As Hymes (1974) observed, the communicative event is at the heart of a speech community’s linguistic practices and allowing students to directly engage with and reflect on these moments of interaction offers possibilities for subverting many of the idealisations noted above.

To this effect, I offer two examples which show how digital communication technology can be used to directly engage students with the communitive events in Japanese speech communities and decentre idealisations of communication and disrupt ideologies of language and communication which are often implicitly absorbed through these idealisations. This includes having students perform observations of hashtag use in Japanese language Instagram posts, noting their linguistic diversity, and then appropriate common practices for the creation of their own social media posts. It also includes the provision of a ‘virtual exchange’ program where participation in interactions allowed students to observe the co-constructed and heteroglossic nature of interaction and deemphasise the importance of grammatical accuracy.

Through engagement with speech communities online students can be introduced to the tools of ethnography and critical applied linguistics, even in limited forms, serving to foster both their ability to critically reflect, evaluate and understand the language they encounter through structured learning sources and actual communicative practice.