AILA 2021: Dr Richard Sampson Complexity, L2 psychology and practitioner research

 AILA World Congress 2021

The AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) World Congress, postponed from 2020, was organised by the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. The online event took place over six days in August, with more than 2,300 attendees representing all corners of the globe. This year's conference theme was 'The dynamics of language, communication and culture in a changing world'. The event was organised into around 200 different symposia, each with a featured speaker and 6-7 presentations and posters with time for Q & A and discussion.

Dr Richard Sampson

Complexity, L2 psychology and practitioner research

Dr Richard Sampson (Rikkyo University, Japan), was the featured speaker of symposium 116: Practitioner Research and classroom dynamics: emic insights through a small lens. He has done considerable research into L2 motivation, learners’ possible selves and, more recently, participants’ experience of emotions during the language learning process.

Traditionally, this area of research has used surveys and statistical analysis to provide ‘snapshots’ of a population at a particular time, which averages out the individuals in the group to look for general tendencies. By so doing, researchers can miss the details of the dynamic, social, situated reality of classes as groups of complex individuals, juggling a multitude of influences, some of which are shown in this image from Richard’s presentation:

Richard suggests that such complex phenomena should be examined from a complexity perspective. He describes his understanding of ‘complexity’ as the emergence of meaning through the interaction of different elements in certain ways in a variety of contexts, changing over time.

He adopted a ‘small lens approach’ (Ushioda, 2016) to explore the – as he puts it – relational, dynamic, contextualized nature of learning. His latest research focuses on learner emotions.

He draws on Denzin (1984) to argue that emotions should be contextualized and studied ‘in the world of lived experience’. As teachers, we are uniquely placed to observe these ongoing phenomena from both an inside and outside perspective: ‘If complexity prompts us to understand the critical importance of context, who has greater insight into the particular contexts under observation than an integral member?’ (Pînner & Sampson, 2021: 640).

Richard chose to use Action Research cycles to explore these complex phenomena with his students in Japan. In brief, AR cycles have four stages, as shown in this screenshot from the presentation:

1. Planning – choice of the area you want to improve or understand more fully and decisions about possible actions to take.

2. Acting – introduction of a change action, which deliberately interrupts the status quo.

3. Observing – observation and collection of information on the results and effects of the change action.

4. Reflecting – interpretation of the information, including consideration of your own part in the process, and – based on these reflections – possible introduction of a new, revised action cycle.

In order to understand the nature of ‘The Emotional Classroom’, Richard collected data on his students (1st year undergraduates in an EFL Speaking/Listening class at a Japanese university) by means of pedagogical tasks: reflective journals and activity worksheets, integrated into the content of the course, as well as video recordings of the classes. 

Here, he describes a journal entry by one of the participants: Kazuma, where he was able to identify and code both explicitly-mentioned and implied references to emotions.

Richard used a ‘multiple threading’ technique (Davis & Sumara 2006): colour coding to build up a unique visual representation of emotional experiences both over time (horizontal axis) and in interaction with other members of the group (vertical axis). Kazuma’s emotional trajectory is third in this list.

Richard also described examples from journals and recordings of emotion as an emergent phenomenon: how learners’ feelings about, for example, working with a new partner, are influenced by previous experiences, attitudes and beliefs, personality, and ‘transportable identities’ (Zimmerman, 1998): sharing aspects of their lives outside the classroom, e.g. the discovery of a mutual interest in a YouTuber.

He also explored the evolution of his own reactions from an emic (insider) perspective by means of a journal. Here, he shared his feelings about a task (involving an anecdote about a mistake with a train).

As the teacher, he focuses almost entirely on the students: his connection with them, their curiosity and their sense of achievement. In contrast, entries in the learners’ journals for the same episode demonstrated sympathy for the situation he found himself in and a desire to reassure him that this was normal. In other words, an emotional connection had emerged from an activity originally planned simply as an extension of a unit on narrative sequencing in the coursebook.

In this slide, Richard summarises some of the main lessons to be learned by adopting a complexity perspective:

He quotes Radford (2007): ‘Practitioner researchers need to be analysts and critical interpreters of practice in a way that helps us to understand and explain what is happening’.

Richard concludes by outlining the ways that adopting a ‘small lens’ perspective has helped him understand the different aspects of emotional life of this class.

References

Davis, B. & D. Sumara. (2006). Complexity and Education: Inquiries into Learning, Teaching, and Research. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Denzin, N. K. (1984) On understanding emotion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pinner, R. S. & Sampson, R. J. (2021) Humanizing TESOL research through the lens of complexity thinking. TESOL Quarterly 55(2), 633-642.

Radford, M. (2007). Action research and the challenge of complexity. Cambridge Journal of Education 37 (2), 263-278.

Ushioda, E. (2016) Language learning motivation through a small lens: A research Agenda. Language Teaching 49(4), 566-577.

Zimmerman, D. H. (1998). Identity, context and interaction. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe (Eds.),

Identities in Talk (pp. 87–106). London: Sage.