Constructive and Constructivist Challenges for Applied Linguistics

Abstract

I argue here that the most productive future directions for theory building and research in applied linguistics derive from the extent to which the field's investigators can enrich their conceptual frameworks and methods with insights from “constructivist” scholarly approaches. Such approaches are marked by heightened attention to agency and subjectivity, to the generation and interpretation of meaning, and to the constant interplay between individual and group activity. In addition, I discuss scholarship from other social sciences that further illuminates conditions affecting language learning. The presentation focuses on 3 arenas in which such approaches and additional scholarship have generated important new questions for applied linguistics: (a) the multiple identities of language users, (b) the identification of optimal environments for language acquisition, and (c) the institutional constraints affecting language acquisition and instruction. In each area, constructivist approaches challenge applied linguists to rethink the bounds of the theories andmethods that guide their work.