At the outset of the research, the analysis of theoretical frameworks, conceptions and concepts central to this research was necessary for gaining sufficient knowledge of them in general, for consideration of the research holism, for the transparency of the research process and its results and for the recognition of the teacher-researcher’s prejudices or presuppositions important in hermeneutic researching. Writing this section supported by a literature search and my dated diaries, research journal and sometimes earlier versions of the report improved my awareness of my initial prejudgement and its development.
Nonetheless, it is impossible to return to one’s authentic understandings of the past because the researcher’s horizon is in continuous movement (Gadamer 1989, 307).
Learning theories/approaches on the course
The four learning theories or approaches of which I particularly made use of in the construction of the oral English course differed in their primary interests, conception of learning, how learning was believed to be achieved, what was assumed of human beings as knowers and learners and what was considered important and valuable to learning (see also Wenger 1998, 3–4). These theories or approaches served the English course and its implementation in different ways and introduced different aspects for consideration.
They also contributed teacher development especially at the beginning of the research process. In the reading of the data and interpretation of results, the significance of specific understandings and conceptualisations by individual researchers and writers became more important. Of course, in addition to the four discussed here, the course displays characteristics of other theoretical frames. For example, cooperative learning was an excellent source of ideas and practices.
Before this research, I had applied Lozanov’s suggestopedia on a few courses and employed its ideas on many others. Lozanov (1926–2012) was a Bulgarian physicist, psychiatrist with a psychotherapeutic orientation (see Lozanov 1978) and an educational researcher (Dhority 1991, 11) but not a teacher (Saféris 1987, 19). His suggestopedia was influenced by the contemporary scientific conceptions such as the predominance of behaviourism and his research and work as a psychiatrist. A person was globally, or holistically involved when learning something. Relaxed concentration, “unity of the conscious and the paraconscious”, the availability of human reserve capacities, joy and lack of tension were the main principles followed simultaneously and holistically in Lozanov’s suggestopedia (Lozanov 1978, 258). According to Lozanov, human beings could learn much faster and more than commonly believed. Through suggestion, it was possible to increase the capacity of memory and create conditions where it was possible to deal with mental barriers impeding learning. (Lozanov 1978, 9–10.) A positive, supportive environment and course climate, holism, strong faith in students’ ability to learn and attention to the students’ well-being had a significant position in suggestopedia. According to Hooper Hansen, Lozanov’s humanistic approach emphasises the aims of better health, learners’
belief in themselves and their learning and the removal of their fears. Positive emotions are important because they open the mind. Negative ones are avoided because they create defensiveness, passivity and aggression. A long, passive period at the beginning and the text to be studied also in the students’ first language promote their feeling of safety and comfort. (Hooper Hansen 1999, 214–216.)
Some of its conceptions of learning and the learner and a number of other elements in suggestopedia contain which according to today’s FLE are even detrimental. Especially the belief in suggestion as a central and influential factor in learning and the subtle behaviourism (see Lerède 1986, 94–95) alienates suggestopedia from today’s FLE. Suggestopedia seems to conflict with the development of students’ autonomy undermining their awareness of their learning process, their self-assessment and assessment of their studies, factors which
today are considered indispensable for learning, especially today for adults studying independently. However, Hooper Hansen points out that the way to student autonomy in suggestopedia is first paved through security established by teacher authority leading to the growth of confidence and then promoted in co-operation. Suggestion according to her serves as the placebo before the growth of self-confidence and self-empowerment. (Hooper Hansen 1999, 212–218.)
Apart from Lozanov himself, my knowledge of suggestopedia is mainly based on and influenced by Western literature and practitioners. Especially in the West, suggestopedia and approaches based on it have many features of humanistic psychology, such as attention to affective factors, positive atmosphere, spontaneous creativity and meaningful communication as channels of the student’s self-realisation (Hooper Hansen 1999), features that also apply to my approach. The promotion of participation, mutual respect and confidence, a humanistic teacher attitude, encouragement and attention to the student’s self-confidence are other humanistic characteristics (see e.g. Kauppila 2007, 29) which have been my aims, too. Suggestopedia offered many well-functioning and wise practices and principles for the purposes of this research, one of which was the plot and the new names and identities employed on suggestopedic courses (Lozanov & Gateva 1989, 60 and 117).
Suggestopedia attended to social factors (also Stern 1992, 320) and focused on speaking, which served the promotion of oral communication.
Sociocultural theory of second language learning draws extensively on Vygotsky’s thoughts on the mediated mind, interaction and negotiation of meaning and on a growing diversity of other elements (Lantolf 2000). According to sociocultural theory, human beings have developed tools to act on the world. The symbolic ones, among them language as the most important have developed to meet the needs of human interaction. Mental actions arise from “external, materially based, social actions”. (Lantolf, 2000, 1–2 and 14.) Thinking and speaking form a dialectic unit and the published speech completes the thought (Lantolf 2000, 7). It is not necessary to argue about the origin of mental actions and the arguments preceding them in this context. Because they were in contradiction Vygotsky’s conception of the position of language was helpful in understanding Gadamer’s conception, which I have assumed here. According to Gadamer, our whole existence and perception of the world comes through language (Gadamer 1976, 29). Understanding and thinking take place in the universal medium of language or rather occur as “coming-into-language” (Gadamer 1976, 68; 1989, 378 and 389).
Although I did not altogether agree with the theoretical basis of sociocultural theory of second language learning, its theory and practice concerning oral communication had much to give to the English course and to professional development. Especially Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development, the ZDP was fruitful for implementing the course and my understanding as a teacher. The ZPD signifies the zone between what the learner knows and can manage on his/her own, and what he/she can manage with the support of a more knowledgeable person or in collaboration with such a person but not on
his/her own (Vygotsky 1978, 86; Lantolf 2000, 17). The CEF was of great help in making use of the ZPD among the adult students whose level of English was diverse and unknown.
In Wenger’s social theory of learning, learning is a social phenomenon and corresponds to the social nature of human beings who have the ability of knowing (Wenger 1998, 3). Practice, which is central to this theory, denotes doing and mutual engagement.
According to Wenger’s theory, our courses were communities of practice. They were social contexts where the participants’ enterprises were recognised as competence and worth pursuing and could be seen as “shared histories of learning” because people were mutually engaged there aspiring to learning that was significant for them (Wenger 1998, 5 and 86).
Identity describes how learning changes people, which results in histories of what people have become in their communities of practice.
Wenger’s theory challenged to view language learning from the social viewpoint emphasising the social aspect of the course. He places “learning in the context of our lived experience of participation in the world” (Wenger 1998, 3), which was in line with our course that contained plenty of participation. However, foreign language studies demand much else. For example, learning needs have to be personally recognised and solutions to them independently searched for and chosen. These are very important for an adult as a lifewide learner in his/her life and its communities of practice (also Karlsson & Kjisik 2011, 86–87). Wenger’s concept of imagination (see Wenger 1998, 176 and 178–179) serves well in the analysis and conceptualisation of adults’ ability to be and become independent learners and participants situated in their own social life contexts explored in Part IIIA.
Experiential learning among the more social theories was holistic in its recognition of the involvement of “emotional, social, physical, cognitive and spiritual aspects of personality”
(Kohonen 2001, 25). It was more than Kolb’s argument that learning in experiential theory denotes “integrated functioning of the total organism – thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving” (Kolb 1984, 31; Elkjaer 2009, 86). A good guide to experiential learning was Experiential Learning in Foreign Language Education (Kohonen, Kaikkonen, Jaatinen &
Lehtovaara 2001). I felt at home with its discussions, ideas and arguments, perhaps because the roots of experiential learning were in humanistic psychology (Kohonen 2001, 24–26).
For a long time, it had been important for me that language studies offered experiences.
Even when the target language had been an object of examination and analysis in class, I had tried to attach appropriate use of target language to it, preferably interactive practices such as role-play, games, real-life and fictive stories shared in class or group discussions (see Kohonen 2001, 23). Hence, my exploration of experiential learning actually started as spontaneous reflection on the similarities and differences between my conception of experience at the time and “concrete experience” as one phase of experiential learning cycle.
The other phases were abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation and reflective observation (Illeris 2012, 20; Kohonen 2001, 28–29). Experiential learning became increasingly central when the course participants’ awareness, expressions of independence, interest in the learning process, autonomy and reflection on their learning started to appear in our informal discussions on the lesson, during the breaks and more extensively
in the conversational interviews. The researching also indicated that transformation of experience including active experimentation and reflective observation were essential for knowledge (see Kolb 1984, 38). This research plan offered two opportunities for it, first in liberal education and then at the UAS.
Participation, meaning, holism and affect
Participation, meaning, holism and affect and what these conceptions denote were central ideas in this research. They illuminate this research from different viewpoints, describe it, have influenced it and contributed to course practice and data interpretation.
Participation is used with two intertwining meanings here. Both of them mean taking part in something, doing something together, belonging and being included. Participation was necessary and important for the promotion of oral English communication on the course and for real life speaking in the future. According to Gadamer, in participation we share what has been passed down to us, namely culture (Gadamer 2001, 40–41) including language. “The whole inner store of our lives is always extending by participating”
and belongingness (Gadamer 1984, 64), which also takes place in English speaking communities and belongingness to them. In Wenger’s social theory of learning (1998, 57), participation denotes the “profoundly social character of our experience of life”. When working together, students build and work on each other’s ideas, are excited by them, build networks, and find focus (Duckworth 2001c, 184 and 186; Scheier 2001, 190). Sfard’s comparison between the acquisition metaphor (AM) and the participation metaphor (PM) of learning and particularly her description of PM (Sfard 1998, 5–7) is helpful. Which of the Sfard’s AM and PM metaphors is needed and applied and in what proportion, depends on the aims, circumstances and preferences but both are needed (Sfard 1998, 10–12).
Within AM, the learners collect knowledge for themselves like private entrepreneurs. In PM, the learning results from joint participation and negotiation. (Sfard 1998, 6.) Instead, according to Lozanov’s suggestopedic theory, “memorisation” [and learning] took place through meaningful listening (Lozanov 1980, 51–52; Gateva 1991b, 96–97). Participation in the communicative activities only” completed” the acquisition (Lozanov 1980, 60) and gave the opportunity to practise the recently gained knowledge (Saféris 1987, 113). Even so, suggestopedia had many qualities of PM, such as contextuality, affiliation, engagement and belongingness to the community and participation. Seen from Sfard’s PM perspective, suggestopedic activities and tasks indicated participation and were learning.
The second concept is meaning. According to Gadamer, the meaning a person gives to his/her experiences is autobiographically determined and “fused with the whole movement of life” (Gadamer 1989, 67; also see Jaatinen 2007). In a similar vein, Bruner argues that the personal interpretations of meanings reflect both a person’s own history and the ways in which his/her culture constructs the reality for him/her (Bruner 1996, 14). Vygotsky has two concepts, meaning and sense. The sense of a word is “the sum of all the psychological
events aroused in our consciousness by a word” while the meaning of the word has an exact zone and “no more than a stone in the edifice of sense” (Vygotsky 1986, 244–245). Thus, one can say that the “sense” comes through a person’s own experiences and encounters and thus denotes authentic language use and contextuality and refers to situatedness and holism. Knowing and using English words or expressions as translations from one’s own language or as meanings without a link to oneself, one’s experiences and identity is not authentic language use, which demands personal psychological meanings and experiences attached to the foreign language words, their use and one’s life. According to C. Rogers, study material without any particular significance for the learners only touches their mind while significant and meaningful material “combines the logical and the intuitive, the intellect and the feelings”. (Rogers, C. 1983, 19–20, italics in original.) The Vygotskian senses arise through holistic, personally and individually orientated learning and authentic experiences in the use of a foreign language. This way, the language touches one’s identity and becomes one’s own. Authentic experiences ought to become guiding principles on the course, too.
In the present research, the understanding of holism as a teacher-researcher expanded denoting teacher development, too. For me, holism used to relate to humanistic teaching and I attended to such aspects in the implementation of the course. Carl Rogers argued that the whole person of the learner becomes involved only when the right hemisphere was actively brought into play. This hemisphere is aesthetic, artistic and creative rather than logical and catches the “whole gestalt”. (Rogers, C. 1983, 20.) Personal involvement, both the feeling and the cognitive aspects should be involved in the learning event. Learning should be experiential, self-initiated and characterised by discovery, learner-evaluation and by correspondence to what the students need and want to know. (Rogers, C. 1983, 20.) These qualities were particularly important for lifelong, independently studying adults. Lozanov’s suggestopedia with roots in psychotherapy (Lozanov & Gateva 1989, 9) emphasised aesthetics, creativity, art, affect, social elements and the physical and mental well-being of the learners (Lozanov 1991, 14; 1978, 251–252 and 257–258, see also Hooper Hansen 1999, 217) and brought another aspect. In CEF, a strong expression of human holism is the inclusion of general competences (2001, 11–13, 101–108) as crucial factors and resources, seen as part of the language user’s competence beside communicative language competence. Rauhala’s holistic conception of man defined human beings as physical, conscious and situated beings (Rauhala 1990, 35–46). It is the last mentioned of these, situatedness that had most to give because I did not know about it before the research.
Gadamer’s specific contribution to holism concerned time. Past, present and future form a unity, where past is always present and influential for a person through his/her experiences of life and belongingness to tradition within which we live (Gadamer 2001, 43 and 45).
According to CEF, communication demands the inclusion of the human being as an entity (CEF 2001, 1). The term language user/learner speaks of holism. Learners are social agents who use their “cognitive, emotional and volitional resources” and their abilities to
fulfil their aims (CEF 2001, 9), which is another view of holism. Agency calls for active participation. It was an important prerequisite for learning and future encounters with English and accordingly, in the studies I describe in this research. Volition is indispensable for successful language studies in general but especially for adults without any formal obligation to study.
The conception of language learners as “thinking, feeling, and acting persons in a context of language use grounded in social relationships with other people” (Breen 2001, 1) is an apt description of the research interest here. To involve the whole personality of man, there should be cognitive-constructivist, emotional-affective, socio-constructivist and experiential theories to capture the totality of man as a being which knows, feels, experiences and consciously strives for social relationships (see Kaikkonen 2004, 164–165).
Cognitive-constructivist elements became prominent in the conversational interviews.
Affect has been a central element in my teacher’s practice and theory owing to my humanistic approach to teaching. To become better informed about the role of affect in FLE for the research, I first studied FLE literature, for example Affect in Language Learning which presented practical and theoretical perspectives from the viewpoints of humanism, experiential learning and the growth of human potential (Arnold 1999, xii–xiii). Damasio’s neurobiology (Damasio 2003; 2004) provided information on the influence of inborn feelings and emotions and helped me to see their significant position in the present study.
According to Damasio, affect plays a crucial part in the functions of the human body and being. Affect, a “central aspect of humanity” comprises “drives, motivations, emotions, and feelings” (Damasio 2003, 8). Emotions are often outwardly perceivable while feelings,
“the bedrock of our minds” (Damasio 2003, 28), our “being in a certain way” (Damasio 2003, 88 and 85, italics in original) remain private and hidden except to the owner (Damasio 2003, 28). Damasio pinpoints the centrality of feelings in social behaviour and social encounters (Damasio 2003, 140). What is more, feelings have an immense influence on our lives and on us because feelings come first and “have a say on how the rest of the brain and cognition go about their business” (Damasio 1994, 159–160). Emotions make decision-making possible (Damasio 2003, 140–147). In the same line, Vygotsky argues,
“Behind every thought there is an affective-volitional tendency, which holds the answer to the last ‘why’ in the analysis of thinking” (Vygotsky 1986, 252). Not making the same distinction between emotion and affect as Damasio, Oatley maintains that emotions
“point to matters of vital importance, and energise us in relation to them… set priorities, make our lives meaningful, and create our commitments to friends and against enemies”
(Oatley 2004, 12). In Bruner’s words, emotions and feelings are an inborn part of human existence, always present and at work in human life and decision-making (Bruner 1996, 12–13). To conclude, emotions and feelings have a significant position in studying and communicating in oral English classes.
Language and oral communication
Irrespective of how well a foreign language is mastered, it remains foreign in comparison to the first language, which is learned in an affective process where the belonging to the culture develops (Kohonen, Kaikkonen, Jaatinen & Lehtovaara 2001, 3; Kaikkonen 2004, 119). The first language is a way to live in one’s body as oneself, a way of living and existing, says Nuolijärvi (2002), the director of The Institute of the Languages in Finland. We think, know, feel and are in contact with other people through our first language, identify ourselves with it and experience belongingness. It allows us to interpret and express our experiences and phenomena in the world. The words in the first language are connected with our life history and experiences during it (Kaikkonen 2004, 110 and 118–119). For these reasons, the first language includes affect, meaningfulness, intention, participation and belongingness, all of which the later learned languages do not. However, the recognition of the holistic processes of learning and the first language can facilitate and give suggestions to foreign language learning even if a foreign language can hardly denote the same kind of human existence and fulfil the same needs as the first language. Even so, what the first
Irrespective of how well a foreign language is mastered, it remains foreign in comparison to the first language, which is learned in an affective process where the belonging to the culture develops (Kohonen, Kaikkonen, Jaatinen & Lehtovaara 2001, 3; Kaikkonen 2004, 119). The first language is a way to live in one’s body as oneself, a way of living and existing, says Nuolijärvi (2002), the director of The Institute of the Languages in Finland. We think, know, feel and are in contact with other people through our first language, identify ourselves with it and experience belongingness. It allows us to interpret and express our experiences and phenomena in the world. The words in the first language are connected with our life history and experiences during it (Kaikkonen 2004, 110 and 118–119). For these reasons, the first language includes affect, meaningfulness, intention, participation and belongingness, all of which the later learned languages do not. However, the recognition of the holistic processes of learning and the first language can facilitate and give suggestions to foreign language learning even if a foreign language can hardly denote the same kind of human existence and fulfil the same needs as the first language. Even so, what the first