Meaningful interaction and affordances for language learning at a Zapotec revitalisation programme

ABSTRACT

Many theoretical models of second or additional language learning posit a crucial role for meaningful social interaction in the target language. However, it is not always clear to language educators how to create such opportunities or what counts as meaningful interaction. This can become even more difficult when the target language is an endangered language, as there may not be a real-world social context in which to speak the language. This paper offers an illustration of how educators at a Sierra Juárez Zapotec language revitalisation programme in Oaxaca, Mexico have tried to make teaching more effective by creating new spaces for meaningful interaction and focusing on ‘affordances’ for language learning. Affordances are understood to be moments or opportunities when sociological and cognitive factors come together to catalyse and promote language acquisition. Educators at the Zapotec programme provided affordances for language learning through: (1) meaningful listening, (2) rich and elaborated language, and (3) negotiation for meaning. Through a discussion of these strategies, this paper aims to share with a wider audience the ways that one group of indigenous language teachers have addressed some of the pedagogical challenges they faced.

KEYWORDS:

• Language revitalisation
• communicative language teaching
• affordances theory
• Zapotec languages

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the editors and reviewers of this special issue. This article highlights the hard work and dedication of the Zapotec students, their parents, and the members of the Grupo Cultural Tagayu’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Katherine J. Riestenberg http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4865-9237

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation [grant number BCS-1451687]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.