Contradictions in learning to write in a second language classroom: insights from radical constructivism, activity theory, and complexity theory

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dc.contributor.advisorSchallert, Diane L.en
dc.contributor.advisorSyverson, Margaret A.,1948-en
dc.creatorNelson, Charles Puryearen
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-28T21:35:40Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:15:57Z
dc.date.available2008-08-28T21:35:40Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:15:57Z
dc.date.issued2002en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThis study explores how a multi-theoretical perspective can help researchers and educators to move beyond descriptive analyses and toward an explanatory understanding of how students learn to write in a second language. The multitheoretical perspective included the three theories of radical constructivism, activity theory, and complexity theory, as represented by Jean Piaget and Ernst von Glasersfeld, Yrjö Engeström, and John Holland, respectively. Taking a case study approach, this dissertation involved looking at how international students in a computer-assisted, first-year university rhetoric and composition course learned to write research-supported arguments in a second language classroom at a major university in the Southwest over a period of one semester. Data for analysis consisted primarily of audio-taped interviews with the students, samples of their writing, and the students’ observations and interpretations of their learning over the semester. The major conclusion of the study was that contradictions were the sine qua non driving force of learning in this class. Learning was not simply a straightforward process of participation but emerged nonlinearly as students reflected on and acted on contradictions arising from perceived discrepancies between their present experiences and their previous schemas, including sociocultural schemas. Moreover, the nature of the students’ learning was mediated by the sociohistorical influences they embodied, by the material and psychological tools they used, and by their interactions with other individuals both within and without the classroom ecology. Thus, by using a multiple theoretical perspective that shifts analysis back and forth among individuals, socially mediated practices, and underlying ecological dynamics, new insights can be gained of how students learn to write in a second language, thus broadening our understanding of second language composition theory and pedagogy.
dc.description.departmentForeign Language Educationen
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifierb57170186en
dc.identifier.oclc56826914en
dc.identifier.proqst3115510en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/812en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subject.lcshLanguages, Modern--Study and teachingen
dc.titleContradictions in learning to write in a second language classroom: insights from radical constructivism, activity theory, and complexity theoryen
dc.type.genreThesisen

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