The recent context and circumstances have shown that language has a deep influence in the way people conduct the act of “living,” both in their personal and professional environments. It has also shown that language and culture are nothing if not political and the locus of contested ideologies and symbolic power. This course is designed to introduce students to new approaches in language learning. By “social pedagogies,” we envision to frame language curricula through pedagogical practices that take as a point of departure the notion of language as a social-relational phenomenon. This course will thus examine pedagogical approaches that connect classroom instruction to the multifaceted contexts and challenges of language use beyond the classroom. Drawing on the work of Bass & Elmendorf (2012) as applied to L2 contexts (Dubreil & Thorne, 2017) we will examine L2 learners as “locuteurs/acteurs” (Kern & Liddicoat, 2008), that is to say as social agents who mobilize symbolic and linguistic resources and competencies to successfully negotiate complex intercultural and transactional contexts. We will examine how we can encourage the integration of course content with engagement in communicative contexts and communities relevant to students’ social and academic life-worlds.
- Teacher: Sebastien Dubreil