4041 PLENARY SPEECHES they might acquire new meanings when viewed from an ecological perspective.They are formulated here only as suggestions and as potential food for thought. MEANING IS RELATIONAL/MULTIDIMENSIONAL An ecological perspective on foreign language ond to?What larg What representation of native speakers and their culture is offered by the textbook?Are they the same as we are,different from us.).Open up the polarity between the language and culture of the students(LI/CI)and the foreign language and culture (L2/C2).Bring to the fore the diversity of meanings given to news events and texts read by the students themselves based on own cultural Put in relation their interpretations of events an interpretations by native speakers or non-native speakers of the same news event or story (for a concrete example from the classroom,see Kramsch 2003). MEANING IS MEDIATED.How do pictures in the textbook mediate the input-as entertainment, as support,as counterpoint to language?How do the pictures express through shapes, volumes,vectors etc.what the text expresses through words,clauses,and paragraphs?Exploit the transition surfaces between media.but also between linguistic codes.Ask students to reflect on the way the meaning gs they attribute to a text are mediated through their own feelings, memories,projections(for concrete examples,see Kramsch 2001). MEANING IS MULTISCALAR AND RECURSIVE (TIMESCALES).Think of a lesson in terms of timing,cycles of repetition,re-iteration on various levels of complexity or con t,contexts rhythm.Break the linearity of textbook and syllabus.Explicitly restructure old knowledge in light of the new-for example,reassign at the end of the term a short story read at the beginning of the term and have the students discover new meanings in a familiar content. Revisit former points of grammar,former issues,former dictionary meanings now with more wa for ex mple,thedistinction,presented as lexi ormal/formal forms of address in the first week can get picked up in the eighth wee as a study of social stratification in French society.and in week 15 as the paradox of power and solidarity (Liddicoat 2006). MEANING IS EMERGENT.As Hayles(1990,1991)demonstrated,the 'emergent order'ofa short story or novel brought to light by literary analysis can illustrate with considerable power the ecological perspective on meaning evoked here.Practice round robin storytelling not only to anings erge at each retelli ing.New mo emerges in the contact zone between two renditions of the same story,b een two lingu codes,two written or conversational styles (for examples,see Kramsch 1993:chapters 3-4). MEANING IS UNPREDICTABLE AND DOUBLE-VOICED.Leave a margin of surprise in language Surprise arises not from the theme but from the variations on the theme.Teach grammatica and lexical accuracy and communicative effectiveness,but leave room for and,indeed, encourage stylistic variation,irony,humor,subversion(for an example,see Bannink 2002). MEANING IS FRACTAL The u/ous distinction can be seen as a fractal of social relations in French society.For example:Jacques Chirac says vous'to his wife;Segolene Royal and the whole socialist party say 'tu'to one another;French police often say 'tu'to Arab404 PLENARY SPEECHES they might acquire new meanings when viewed from an ecological perspective. They are formulated here only as suggestions and as potential food for thought. MEANING IS RELATIONAL/MULTIDIMENSIONAL. An ecological perspective on foreign language education encourages us to teach what Bakhtin calls ‘the internal dialogism’ of words (Bakhtin 1981: 282): What other words/texts do words and texts respond to? What larger questions do textbooks respond to? (i.e., What assumptions underlie the choice of words, topics etc.? What representation of native speakers and their culture is offered by the textbook? Are they the same as we are, different from us?). Open up the polarity between the language and culture of the students (L1/C1) and the foreign language and culture (L2/C2). Bring to the fore the diversity of meanings given to news events and texts read by the students themselves based on their own cultural experiences. Put in relation their interpretations of events and interpretations by native speakers or non-native speakers of the same news event or story (for a concrete example from the classroom, see Kramsch 2003). MEANING IS MEDIATED. How do pictures in the textbook mediate the input – as entertainment, as support, as counterpoint to language? How do the pictures express through shapes, volumes, vectors etc. what the text expresses through words, clauses, and paragraphs? Exploit the transition surfaces between media, but also between linguistic codes. Ask students to reflect on the way the meanings they attribute to a text are mediated through their own feelings, memories, projections (for concrete examples, see Kramsch 2001). MEANING IS MULTISCALAR AND RECURSIVE (TIMESCALES). Think of a lesson in terms of timing, cycles of repetition, re-iteration on various levels of complexity or content, contexts, rhythm. Break the linearity of textbook and syllabus. Explicitly restructure old knowledge in light of the new – for example, reassign at the end of the term a short story read at the beginning of the term and have the students discover new meanings in a familiar content. Revisit former points of grammar, former issues, former dictionary meanings now with more complex ones – for example, the tu/vous distinction, presented as lexical/grammatical items or as informal/formal forms of address in the first week can get picked up in the eighth week as a study of social stratification in French society, and in week 15 as the paradox of power and solidarity (Liddicoat 2006). MEANING IS EMERGENT. As Hayles (1990, 1991) demonstrated, the ‘emergent order’ of a short story or novel brought to light by literary analysis can illustrate with considerable power the ecological perspective on meaning evoked here. Practice round robin storytelling not only to increase fluency, but to show how different meanings emerge at each retelling. New meaning emerges in the contact zone between two renditions of the same story, between two linguistic codes, two written or conversational styles (for examples, see Kramsch 1993: chapters 3–4). MEANING IS UNPREDICTABLE AND DOUBLE-VOICED. Leave a margin of surprise in language. Surprise arises not from the theme but from the variations on the theme. Teach grammatical and lexical accuracy and communicative effectiveness, but leave room for and, indeed, encourage stylistic variation, irony, humor, subversion (for an example, see Bannink 2002). MEANING IS FRACTAL. The tu/vous distinction can be seen as a fractal of social relations in French society. For example: Jacques Chirac says ‘vous’ to his wife; Segol ´ ene Royal ` and the whole socialist party say ‘tu’ to one another; French police often say ‘tu’ to Arab https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444808005065 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Connecticut, on 01 Nov 2018 at 16:55:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at