Learners’ Discursive Voices in Role Play, Dialogic Means of Meaning Construction and Their Implications for Innovative Pedagogies

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the utterances of two groups of Thai EFL learners while engaged in role play, revealing a dialogic interaction between their personal ‘lived’ identities and the ‘projected identities’ found in the learning materials. The first group used materials from the New Headway Elementary student's course book (Soars & Soars, 2000), which invokes mainly voices and meanings related to the cultures or lifeworlds of the West. The second group used specially prepared ‘third space’ materials invoking voices and meanings drawn from the learners’ local culture and lived experience. The findings are: (1) both groups have marked potential to infuse their contextual meanings into the other-discourse of their materials for self-representation; and (2) ‘third space’ materials have more potential to enrich linguistic resources and opportunities for learners’ meaning-making and scaffolded learning than ‘Headway’ materials. The study thus supports the use of the ‘third space’ concept for designing EFL materials that will enhance learner-centred discursive construction and dialogic communication.