Using Situated Learning to Examine the Language of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Since Firth and Wagner’s (1997) call for a reconceptualization of the field of second language acquisition (SLA), much discussion has centered on the pairing of discourse analysis and sociocultural theory as an approach to SLA research. Many researchers have used conversation analysis (CA) to examine language learning contexts, and of the many arms of sociocultural theory, situated learning has emerged as particularly suitable for the study of talk-in-interaction, the focus of CA. For discourse analysts working from a sociocultural perspective, context is integral to understanding the nature of teaching and learning, and situated learning thus represents a theory worth consideration.