The Construction of Social Reality through the Use of the English Language: A Study with Argentinean Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

This case study aims at replicating a study conducted in 2007 with a group of ten trainees at the English Teacher Training Program at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. In 2007, the participants recorded a dyadic interactive task. Speech data were analyzed to see how, through the use of language, learners construed their social reality. In the present work, seventeen pre-service English language teachers enrolled in a four-year program at Instituto Superior IDRA, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, completed a task similar to the one carried out by the 2007 group. Findings from both groups were cross-checked. Results revealed that most learners in both groups preferred to satisfy personal needs such as traveling, buying a house and a car to getting involved in doing academic research.

Keywords

• Discourse analysis
• dyadic interactive tasks
• social reality