Rethinking language learning and Web 2.0: from monologism to dialogism
and trialogism
Françoise Blin, francoise.blin@dcu.ie
Web 2.0 applications and immersive environments (e.g. Second Life) are said to offer affordances for
the development of new competencies and skills among 21st century learners. In the case of second
and foreign language learning, these new environments are increasingly attractive to language
teachers and course designers who seek to provide their learners with enhanced opportunities for
online production and interaction, both oral and written. Yet, many teachers tend to reproduce, at
least initially, their face-to-face practice and fail to engineer language learning activities that realise
the unique affordances offered by these new learning spaces (Zheng & Newgarden, 2012). In recent
years, researchers seeking to develop new pedagogies for emerging technologies are increasingly
questioning the theoretical foundations of current language teaching and learning practices. They
call for a rethinking of our conception of language, of its acquisition and of its role in language
learners’ cognitive development. Rejecting the “individualistic view of language as code” and
pedagogies rooted in the input/output model, which “do not account for the multiple timescales
across which learning occurs or the dynamic, distributed, multimodal nature of meaning-making”
(Zheng & Newgarden, 2012: 16), they call for the adoption of languaging as an alternative view of
language, as well as dialogical and trialogical approaches to language teaching (see for example:
Zheng & Newgarden, op.cit,; Linell, 2009; Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2005).
This presentation proposes that Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Engeström’s theory of
expansive learning (Engeström & Sannino, 2010) can help us design and implement language
learning tasks that exploit the affordances that these environments offer. Following an overview of
concepts that have been brought in recent years to the fore of Applied Linguistics debates, such as
languaging, emergence, competence, and agency, it proposes and discusses a five-step design
model, rooted in CHAT, which can be applied in a variety of contexts for a variety of task types with a
view to enable language learners to participate in knowledge creation activities and to become
agents within their language learning environment. Examples drawn from French modules currently
delivered in DCU illustrate how the model can be applied to real language learning situations.
References
Engeström, Y. et Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning : foundations, findings and future
challenges. Educational Research Review, 5: 1–24.
Linell, P. (2009). Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: Interactional and contextual
theories of human sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Paavola, S., & Hakkarainen, K. (2005). The knowledge creation metaphor –An emergent
epistemological approach to learning. Science & Education, 14(6): 535-557.
Zheng, D. et Newgarden, D. (2012). Rethinking language learning: virtual worlds as a catalyst for
change. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(2): 13–36.