Culture & SLA - Week 14 - Multicompetence and Learner Identity

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 14 of the course Culture and Second Language Acquisition for the master's in English teaching at ULACIT term IIC0 2023. In this class we will explore the topic of multicompetence as a model to explain the unique abilities of the L2 learner and discuss its implications on our role in L2 learner identity formation. We will also share our reactions to the the cultural analysis reading you were assigned and we'll take time for a final review and reflection on the topics seen in this course.

Today's Goals:

• Look back and topics, assignments, and activities covered in this course and express ways in which our beliefs and understandings of culture have changed, deepened, or remained the same.
• Explore the features of Multicompetence as a model for healthy L2 learner identity formation.
• Discuss the roles we have as teachers in shaping our students' identities as L2 and C2 learners.
• Analyze and evaluate the claims of a published study of Costa Rican cultural perspectives.

Guiding Questions:

• What are my biggest takeaways from this course?
• What are the implications of the concept of multicompetence on my views about ELT?
• What role do I play in shaping my students' identities as L2 and C2 learners?
• How would I describe the perspectives of my culture to an outsider?

Community Builder: Course Review and Reflection

This is the final regular class of the term. We have covered a lot our first 13 lessons. Let's take a moment to look back at some of the key concepts, readings, assignments, and class activities. Click the link below.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 1: Deficit or Additive Model?

Language learners are often unfairly judged in terms of what they do "incorrectly" and they are seen to have a "deficit" compared to some ideal standard. Although Bert is talking about accent change among native speakers of English, how can his views of language learning being an "additive" process relate to the concept of Multicompetence?

Theory Break: Imagined Communities and Identity

Quotes from Last Week: 

• English Language Learner or Multilingual Speaker: The authors discussed the perspectives about multilingualism in English speaking countries where non-English native speakers, who may be quite proficient speakers of English as well as their L1 and additional languages, are seen by the overwhelmingly monolingual native English speaking population as deficient speakers and are “often positioned within a deficit framework that limits the kinds of identities and communities that can be imagined by and for these learners.” In the extreme case are cultural perspectives that “equate bilingualism and non-native speaker status with disability and cognitive impairment (p. 596).”

• The authors also talked about possible strategies to counteract these prejudiced cultural perspectives about legitimacy and ownership of English in the area of writing. “The written medium is ideal for this discursive battle over legitimate ownership” because in spoken interactions L2 speakers’ views can be dismissed because of their foreign accent or ethnic appearance but “published texts constitute excellent equalizers and unique arenas where accents are erased and voices imbued with sufficient authority (p. 597).”

Task 2: Introduction to Multicompetence 

Vivian Cook's (1999) model of Multicompetence provides us with an alternative way of viewing the nature of the language learning process, the goals it should have, ELT curriculum and the implications this has in the way language should be taught and our role as teachers. This topic has connections to the topic of learner identity and there are parallels between the ideas of Multicompetence and the outcomes of culture learning.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Exploring Multicompetence and Appropriate Models for L2 Learners to Follow

For our final topic of this course we will explore possible problems with holding the native English speaker as the ideal model for learners to follow and instead look at the possible benefits of the Multicompetent English L2 User as an alternative. Click the link below and discuss the questions with your partners.

• Discussion Prompts: CLICK HERE

Theory Break: Implications of Multicompetence

• "Being a native speaker is ... an unalterable historic fact; you cannot change your native language any more than you can change who brought you up (Cook, 1999)."

• "L2 students cannot be turned into native speakers without altering the core meaning of native speaker in English. A view such as 'adults usually fail to become native speakers' is like saying that ducks usually fail to become swans: adults could never become natives speakers without being reborn (Cook, 1999)."

• Most L2 users differ from L1 monolinguals in the way they know and use the L1 and the L2, but...should such differences be seen as deficits from the native speaker standard (Cook, 1999)?"

• "L2 users have to be looked at in their own right as genuine L2 users, not as imitiation native speakers (Cook, 1999)."

• Implications for teaching: 

• Classroom teaching should be related to L2 user goals.
• Incorporate successful L2 users in course materials and encourage learners to identify Multicompetent L2 users as language role models. 
• Native English speaking teachers are not the best teachers by virtue of their L1.
• Acknowledge students L1 in class activities. 
• View students' L1 knowledge as a meaning making resource.
• Encourage codeswitching

• Taking a multicompetent view of L2 learners can, "begin to acknowledge that L2 users have strengths and rights of their own by giving the students role models of L2 users in action and by requiring the use of both languages by one person: in short, convincing students that they are successful multicompetent speakers, not failed native speakers (Cook, 1999)."

Task 4: Reading Reaction - Outsider Analysis of Costa Rican Culture

Click the group link below and follow the instructions in the document.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

References:

Cook, V. (1999). Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33(2), pp. 185-209.

Hiltunen Biesanz, M., Biesanz, R., Zubris Biesanz, K. (1998). The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica. Lynne Rienner Publishers

Moran, P. (2001). Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice. Heinle Cengage Learning.

Pavlenko, A. & Norton, B. (2007). Imagined Communities, Identity, and English Language Learning. In J. Cummins & C. Davidson (Eds.), International Handbook of English Language Teaching Part II (pp. 589-600). Springer.