ESL adult learners’ legitimate peripheral participation in whole class discussions

초록

This article explores how ESL adult learners participate in a community of practice at the periphery through whole class discussions. Eight ESL learners engaged in whole class discussions about short stories read, each learner undertaking a different role, for example, discussion leader and contextualizer. Analyses of naturally occurring classroom discourse data reveal that the students were interactive with a high level of achievement in the different processes of analyzing text. From the perspective of community practice theory, the students as apprentices learned to think and act by participating in classroom discussion practices. They showed awareness of the role of discussion leader while making various performances, such as initiating discussion, encouraging participation, and making comments on responses. During discussions, the students created their own meanings based on multiple available resources and articulated them. The students also collaboratively made inferences or interpretations of the text while scaffolding the process.

키워드