Moving Towards Legitimate Participation. A Venezuelan Girl Learning English in an Iowa City Elementary School
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.21-3.1Keywords:
Legitimate peripheral participation, relations of power, learning, identity, newcomer.Abstract
This qualitative case study seeks to understand and describe, in depth, the different learning processes in which a nine-year old, Venezuelan girl (Victoria) engaged to reaffirm her identity as a language learner and become a legitimate member of a community of practice during the first six months in an Iowa City Elementary School. Data collection included observations in class and at home, field notes, interviews, oral and written artifacts and e-mails. Analysis was made through a constant comparison of the data to reflect on the potential categorizations of the artifacts considering mainly two theoretical constructs: “legitimate peripheral participation” (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and “collaborative relations of power” (Cummins, 1996). Results suggest that students engage more actively in activities, which are designed to construct meaning through social participation. Legitimate participation in school activities helped Victoria improve her English language ability and reaffirm her identity. The speed with which she learned English at school is mainly due to the solid community of practice she had the fortune to participate in and Mrs. Brown’s mediation. The more she interacted, the better she performed; and the better she performed, the more she interacted. This research offers alternative ways to understand Victoria’s experience as a language learner, the complexity of a second language learning process, and the fundamental role teachers need to perform to mediate in the students’ learning to reaffirm their identities. This study represents an exemplary reflection of what we, as classroom teachers, SL/foreign language teachers, should do in our classrooms if we really want to offer students real opportunities to learn the language and help them reaffirm their identity as language learners.
References
Back, M. (2011). Legitimate peripheral participation and language learning: Two Quichua learners in a transnational community. Language Learning, 61(4), 1039-1057. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00662.x
Bacon, S. M. (2002). Learning the rules: Language development and cultural adjustment during study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 35(6), 637-646. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2002.tb01902.x
Bayley, R., & Schecter, S. R. (2005). Family decision about schooling and Spanish maintenance: Mexicanos in California and Texas. In A. C. Zentella (Ed.), Building on strength. Language and literacy in latino families and communities (pp. 31-45). New York: Teachers College Press.
Bhimji, F. (2005). Language socialization with directives in two Mexican immigrant families in South Central Los Angeles. In A. C. Zentella (Ed.), Building on strength. Language and literacy in latino families and communities (pp. 60-76), New York: Teachers College Press.
Bissex, G. L. (1980). Gnys at wrk: A child learns to write and read. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom discourse. The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Chiseri-Strater, E., & Sunstein, B. S. (2006). What works? A practical guide for teacher research. Portsmoth, NH: Heinemann.
Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Los Ángeles: California Association for Bilingual Education.
Ek, L. D. (2005). Staying on God’s path. Socializing latino immigrant youth to a Christian Pentecostal identity in southern California. In A. C. Zentella (Ed.), Building on strength. Language and literacy in latino families and communities (pp. 77-92), New York: Teachers College Press.
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Freeman, Y. S., &. Freeman, D. E. (1992). Whole language for second language learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Freeman, Y. S., &. Freeman, D. (1998). ESL/EFL teaching. Principles for success. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Glesne, C. (2006). Becoming qualitative researchers. An introduction (3a ed.). NY: Pearson Education.
González-Howard, M., & McNeill, K. L. (2016). Learning in a community of practice: Factors impacting English-learning students’ engagement in scientific argumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(4), 527-553 . doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21310
González, N., Moll, L.C., &, Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowlege. Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Goodman, K. (1989). El Lenguaje Integral. Mérida: Editorial Venezolana.
Goodman, K. (2003). Language and learning: Toward a social-personal view. In A. Flurkey, & J. Xu (Eds), On the revolution of reading. Portsmount, NH: Heinemenn.
Hakuta, K. (1976). A case study of a Japanese child learning English as a second language. Language Learning, 26(2), 321-351. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1976.tb00280.x
Hakuta, K. (1986). Mirror of language. The debate on bilingualism. New York: Basic Books.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1977). Learning how to mean. Explorations in the development of language. New York: Elsevier.
Han, H. (2009). Institutionalized inclusion: A case study on support for immigrants in English learning, TESOL Quarterly, 43(4), 643-668. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2009.tb00190.x
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815355
Martens, P. (1996). I already know how to read: A child’s view of literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Morita, N. (2004). Negotiating participation and identity in second language academic communities. Tesol Quarterly, 38(4), 573-603. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3588281
Nordstrom, J. (2015). Flexible bilingualism through multimodal practices: Studying K-12 community languages online. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(4), 395-408. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.909773
Norton, B. (2001). Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom. In M. P. Been (Ed.), Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research (pp. 159-171). London: Routledge.
Schwarzer, D. (2001). Noa’s ark. One child’s voyage into multiliteracy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Schwarzer, D. (2007). Monolingual teachers fostering students’ native literacies. In Y. Goodman & P. Martens (Eds.), Critical issues in early literacy (pp. 111-122). Research and pedagogy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Smith, F. (1998). The Book of learning and forgetting. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.
Toohey, K. (1998). “Breaking them up, taking them away”: ESL students in grade 1. TESOL Quarterly, 32(1), 61-84. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3587902
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychololgical processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wei, Y., & Zhou, Y. (2003). Language minority parents’ involvement in their child’s english education: A case study of a young ELL student. Paper presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of other Languages, Baltimore. Recuperado de http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED476593.pdf
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932
White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and universal grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815065
Whitmore, K. F., Martens, P., Goodman, Y. M., & Owocki, G. (2004). Critical lessons from the transactional perspective on early literacy research. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 4(43), 291-325. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798404047291
Zentella, A. C. (2005). Premises, promises and pitfalls of language socialization research in latino families and communities. In A. C. Zentella (Ed.), Building on strength. Language and literacy in Latino families and communities (pp. 13-30). New York: Teachers College Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
1. In case the submitted paper is accepted for publication, the author(s) FREELY, COSTLESS, EXCLUSIVELY AND FOR AN INDEFINITE TERM transfer copyrights and patrimonial rights to Universidad Nacional (UNA, Costa Rica). For more details check the Originality Statement and Copyright Transfer Agreement
2. REUTILIZATION RIGHTS: UNA authorizes authors to use, for any purpose (among them selfarchiving or autoarchiving) and to publish in the Internet in any electronic site, the paper´'s final version, both approved and published (post print), as long as it is done with a non commercial purpose, does not generate derivates without previous consentment and recognizes both publisher's name and authorship.
3. The submission and possible publication of the paper in the Educare Electronic Journal is ruled by the Journal’s editorial policies, the institutional rules of Universidad Nacional and the laws of the Republic of Costa Rica. Additionally, any possible difference of opinion or future dispute shall be settled in accordance with the mechanisms of Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Costa Rican Jurisdiction.
4. In all cases, it is understood that the opinions issued are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of Educare, CIDE or Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. It is also understood that, in the exercise of academic freedom, the authors have carried out a rogorous scientific-academic process of research, reflection and argumentation thar lays within the thematic scope of interest of the Journal.
5. The papers published by Educare Electronic Journal use a Creative Commons License:
The articles published by Educare Electronic Journal can be shared with a Creative Commons License: 
