The Hellenic American University’s MA and PhD Programs in Applied Linguistics in cooperation with the Hellenic American Education Center organized a presentation by Dr. Merrill Swain entitled “Languaging and Second/Foreign Language Learning".
The presentation took place at the Roof Garden of the Hellenic American Union, on Saturday, June 15, 2013 followed by a reception with cheese and wine.
Dr. Swain is Professor Emeritus at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, where she has taught and conducted research for 40 years.
Her interests include bilingual education and second language learning, teaching and testing. She is also a Visiting Professor for the PhD program in Applied Linguistics offered by Hellenic American University.
Dr Swain began her presentation by explaining how the concept of “languaging” emerged from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind.
For Vygotsky, language was not just a means of social communication, but a tool of the mind which mediates our thinking/cognition.
According to Dr. Swain,” languaging” is the use of language to mediate cognitively complex acts of thinking. It is “the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language” (Swain, 2006). She maintains that through this process you can see learning in progress.
Dr Swain presented research which indicated that students who engage in more “languaging” learn more than those who engage in less “languaging”. The research covers many knowledge domains e.g. biology, mathematics and language.
Research in language showed that students who used language to mediate the cognitively complex task of understanding “voice” in French could understand this concept better and be able to apply what they learned.
Some of the pedagogical implications mentioned were: collaborative dialog through peer interaction and activities to show that what the students say and write matters to them.
More importantly students should be allowed to talk through difficult language concepts in either their first or their second/foreign language in order to “come-to-know-while-speaking”
Dr. Swain concluded the presentation by reiterating the concept of “languaging”:“Through the process of talking-it-through, of “languaging” – to another, with another, or with the self – we come to new understandings and new insights – it is a way in which we can learn and develop” (Swain, 2013).
