An Analysis of Spanish L2 Learners' Orientation Through Activity Theory

IntroductionIn her discussion of theories of learning, Sfard (1998) proposed two basic metaphors that underlie knowledge: the acquisition and the participation metaphor. While the acquisition metaphor focuses on the process of knowledge internalization, the participation metaphor is concerned with the individual's engagement with community members (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000). Language practitioners who view language learning as acquisition stress the development of internal cognitive processes and often overlook the individual's social context, perceiving it as incidental (Donato, 2000). On the other hand, those who support learning as participation, while not denying the importance of cognitive development, argue that individuals have a central and active role in their own learning process which arises in performance in social settings (Van Lier, 2000).The participation metaphor is readily observable in everyday classroom settings in terms of students' individual approach to language learning tasks. When teachers introduce an activity with a particular learning objective, learners inevitably adapt it to some degree based on their own valuation of the task, thus altering its anticipated course and outcomes. This individual approach to language learning tasks is called orientation, defined as the way in which individuals view a task and the means they devise to fulfill it (Appel & Lantolf, 1994; Roebuck, 2000). Coughlan and Duff (1994) showed how, in a case study, a subject participated in a task that was repeated after one year; contrary to expectations, the participant's performance was drastically different than the year before. Separately, a group of learners were instructed to perform a task and, despitereceivingthesameinstructions, each individual's performance varied. Coughlan and Duff concluded that the same task can yield various results or activities because of each individual's changing and diverse orientation, which is rooted in his or her own goals, intentions, and assessment of the task (Donato, 2000).Prior research has inferred learners' orientation through the analysis of their behavior during participation in learning tasks (e.g., Gillette, 1994; Roebuck, 1998, 2000), but has not taken into account the learners' own view of their orientation and the way it informs their actions. The current study aimed to address this research lacuna by analyzing Spanish L2 learners' observed behavior during a collaborative text reconstruction activity and their own reflections on their interactions in order to reveal a more complete view of L2 learners' orientation.BackgroundActivity TheoryAs applied to the field of second language acquisition, sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) posits that participation in social interaction is a tool that mediates language learning (e.g., Kowal & Swain, 1997; Norris & Ortega, 2000; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998). One application of sociocultural theory is activity theory, which facilitates the study of individuals operating within an interactive sociocultural setting. Activity theory is built on sociocultural principles and arises from the question "What is the individual or group doing in a particular setting?" The answer to this question can be pursued through three levels of analysis: activity, action, and operation (Coughlan & Duff, 1994; Wertsch, 1998). Subjects' actions first originate in their needs. Once a need is identified, it can become a motive that is then realized as a goal-oriented action performed under appropriate mediational means. Thus, the motive and goal determine the direction and amount of effort invested in an activity. Activities are outwardly observable; however, the motives and goals cannot be determined from observation alone since the same activity can be linked to different goals and motives, while different concrete activities can be linked to the same motives and goals (Lantolf, 2000). In this study, the link between learners' motives and goals and their concrete action is materialized with the analysis of learners' post-activity reflections. …