A Study of Language, Culture, and Interaction in an Extra-Curricular Debate Club

Abstract

This study of Armenian university students in an extracurricular debate club explores how opportunities are created for learners of English to engage in the target language and culture. It views language learning as contextualized and socially constituted, taking place through participation in communicative events, and adopts a context-based definition of the target culture, as understood and constructed by the participants themselves. Much of the research work on language, culture and identity has been conducted in ESL settings such as the USA, Canada, or the UK, in which language learning is part of a process of immigration or acculturation or in post-colonial settings in which English has a particular set of social and political connotations. I am interested in exploring the issues of language, identity, and culture in Armenia, a former Soviet republic in its second decade of transition to democracy and a free-market economy, characterized by a significant Diaspora presence, as well as current processes of European and international integration. The project is a longitudinal case study, incorporating observations throughout the course of one ten-week term, a survey of the participants at one session, and small-group interviews conducted after the end of the term. The study finds learners developing their own understanding of the target culture as it is manifested through the target language activity; specifically, they view the culture that parliamentary debate represents as connected to their professional goals, their hopes for the democratization and modernization of their society, and their own desires to participate as free and equal citizens. This understanding promotes learner investment in the activity as a result of the opportunities they perceive it as providing. Learner engagement is further encouraged through the dramatic characteristics of the activity and the collaborative environment that is co-constructed around it.