Same Environment, Different Affordances: Ecological Analysis of Four Different Learners in a University Context

초록

This study investigates the subjective realization of objective environmental factors and learners’ agency in constructing their meaning potential. According to van Lier’s (2000, 2002, 2004) ecological perspective, the environment is yet an unrealized set of potential, and affordance is what was felt meaningful to the learner. Also, learners actively construct their terms and conditions of learning with their agency (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001). Based on van Lier’s ecological framework, two pairs of students enrolled in two same English classes were recruited. Life history, semi-structured interview, and task recall data revealed that for some students, affordance of the English classroom was no more than a mandatory class for graduation, while for others, it was a valuable opportunity to achieve their speaking-related goal. Although all participants are active agents of their lives, in the English class, some of them did not exercise their agency, as the class was not perceived important to them. The difference of affordance and agency among participants was due to multifarious individual backgrounds and personal factors. The same environment produced different affordances, and the affordances then generated different activities. This study implies that the environment should be meaningful to learners and moreover, their personal background should be carefully considered in the study of learner individual differences.

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