Chapter published in:
Cross-theoretical Explorations of Interlocutors and their Individual DifferencesEdited by Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 53] 2020
► pp. 99–124
Chapter 5Interlocutor differences and the role of
social others in a Spanish peer tutoring
context
Michele Back | University of Connecticut
Peer tutoring is a valuable
component of additional language learning due to
interactions with a knowledgeable interlocutor.
Yet many are unaware of the role of what Lantolf
(2015) termed “social others” on
interlocutors’ and learners’ perceptions and
constructions of the target language and culture.
Social others include persons who interlocutors
perceive as having equal, more, or less knowledge;
written texts; and previous or potential selves.
Social others do not have to be physically present
for mediation on expertise to occur. In this
chapter, I analyze video data from Spanish
language peer tutoring sessions, triangulating
with interview excerpts highlighting peer tutor
knowledge and roles. I show how peer tutors
mediated their ascribed epistemic stances of
expert through social others and co-constructed
their own knowledge with learners. These findings
interrogate ways in which knowledge is
traditionally perceived, highlighting the complex
ideologies that surround knowledge of a target
language and culture.
Keywords: epistemic incongruence, epistemic stance, interlocutor differences, peer tutoring, social others
Article outline
- Introduction
- Peer tutoring, sociocultural theory, and epistemic stance
- Setting and methods
- Findings
- Focal participant language histories and beliefs
- Ways of saying cough syrup: Analysis of Roberto’s peer tutoring session
- When physics aren’t physical: Analysis of Tomás’s peer tutoring session
- Discussion and implications
- Conclusion
-
Notes -
References
Published online: 21 January 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.53.05bac
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.53.05bac
References
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