LANGUAGE

Frith & Wagner (1997)

Frith & Wagner (1997)

Overview

The claim of Firth and Wagner (1997) pertaining to the methodologies, theories and foci within the SLA gives a reflection of disturbance between mentalistic and cognitive orientation, and contextual and social orientation to language. It was further emphasized that the there is ascendancy in the former, without any doubt. There are some problematic perspectives in the regard of “communication and discourse”. These problems are primarily originates from the formal settings of communication; such as, classrooms. There are different views of different scholars regarding the view of Firth and Wagner, which further can be classified into negative and positive responses:

Positive Responses

The positive response for this research is of diversified nature, ranging from the efficacy and the usefulness to the application of the other problems which have been lingering in this particular field over the period of time. According to Swain and Deters (2007), who reviewed and discussed the broad range of the socio-cultural informed approaches to Second Language Accusation (SLA) research. In that particular research they were trying to demonstrate that by evaluating the social factors of learners vis-as-vis the L2 learning processes, the understanding of humans of these processes will be increased.

Negative Response

On the other hand, according to Liddicoat (1997), there are many problems in the field of SLA. His main arguments was hovering around the sidelining the significance of social factors impact over the interactions by this particular field. As a matter of fact, this concern was also raised by the originators of the study, Firth and Wagener, as to the kind of data regularly used for investigation questions of interactions in L2 could not have the capability for digging out the basic elements of interactions. It was further quoted in this study that the filed not only view the expressions and sentences in the conversation of the participants as the self regulated and isolated content but also the real instances of the language itself (Lafford, 2007, pp. 735-756). These excerpts are taken from the linguistic as well as non-linguistic context in which they take place. This is in direct opposition of the perception regarding the languages as the medium of communication.

As a matter of fact, the reactions from the Frith and Wagener (1997) was seen on full ripe against the criticisms raised from many quarters, among them Poulisse (1997) is pivotal. In that particular case, the F & W tried to strengthen their original claim by directly responding to the concerns raised. Nonetheless, there are many similar responses; however, I will discuss only that of Poulisse. According to Poulisse, the implication of sociolinguistic as well as psycholinguistic approaches is very important. Primarily due to the fact that the acquisition, perception, production and learning of L2s are termed as psychological processes. This actually strengthens the claim of SLA's researcher's adoption of the former over the latter. Moreover, it has been further emphasized that this particular field can be extended by having an insight of the contextual factors; such as situation of the ...