Theory of Affordance
The perspective on the meaning and importance of awareness phenomena in cognition is provided by the theory of affordances propounded by the perceptual psychologist Gibson (1977, 1979).
Gibson (1979) defines affordances as the perceived opportunities for action provided for the observer by an environment. Affordances can be understood as the possibilities that an object or environment appears to offer (or not to offer) for action or functioning.
Heft (2001) provides the following elaboration of this definition.
“An affordance is the perceived functional significance of an object, event, or place for an individual. For example, a firm, obstacle free ground surface is perceivable as a surface which one can walk. ..The perceived functional character of an environmental feature established possibilities and set limits on actions (Heft, 2001: 123)
Norman (2002:9) The term affordance refers to 'the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used”
In learning and linguistics communication, Segalowitz (2001:15) notes that ‘affordances are important for learning because it is only by being able to perceive affordances that an organism is able to navigate its way around the environment successfully.’ He hypothesises that language acquisition involves attuning one’s attention system to perceive the communicative affordances provided by the linguistic environment’ (pp.15-16)
Snow (1998: 107) puts it: A situation provides a suitable niche only for those persons who are prepared to meet and use its affordances effectively. Those not properly tuned or prepared will in some way fail to perform effectively in the situation as given.
Any discussion of the affordances associated with language learning and use lead straight to the question of language awareness.
The perspective on the meaning and importance of awareness phenomena in cognition is provided by the theory of affordances propounded by the perceptual psychologist Gibson (1977, 1979).
Gibson (1979) defines affordances as the perceived opportunities for action provided for the observer by an environment. Affordances can be understood as the possibilities that an object or environment appears to offer (or not to offer) for action or functioning.
Heft (2001) provides the following elaboration of this definition.
“An affordance is the perceived functional significance of an object, event, or place for an individual. For example, a firm, obstacle free ground surface is perceivable as a surface which one can walk. ..The perceived functional character of an environmental feature established possibilities and set limits on actions (Heft, 2001: 123)
Norman (2002:9) The term affordance refers to 'the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used”
In learning and linguistics communication, Segalowitz (2001:15) notes that ‘affordances are important for learning because it is only by being able to perceive affordances that an organism is able to navigate its way around the environment successfully.’ He hypothesises that language acquisition involves attuning one’s attention system to perceive the communicative affordances provided by the linguistic environment’ (pp.15-16)
Snow (1998: 107) puts it: A situation provides a suitable niche only for those persons who are prepared to meet and use its affordances effectively. Those not properly tuned or prepared will in some way fail to perform effectively in the situation as given.
Any discussion of the affordances associated with language learning and use lead straight to the question of language awareness.
Tessie says:
After reading the definitions of ‘affordance’, I want to draw a picture of a wide obstacle-free path for language learners to walk through the process of learning.
However, this path is not automatically perceived by every learner. To discover the ‘affordance’ path, a learner should possess a high-level of language learning awareness which may vary individually.
After reading the definitions of ‘affordance’, I want to draw a picture of a wide obstacle-free path for language learners to walk through the process of learning.
However, this path is not automatically perceived by every learner. To discover the ‘affordance’ path, a learner should possess a high-level of language learning awareness which may vary individually.
Looking into the classroom context, do we language teachers provide appropriate ' affordance' for learners or not? How can we keep the path clear for learners?
3 comments:
Hello Tessi
What a great way to visualise the idea of affordances! I think the path is also a nice metaphor for learners themselves, perhaps where they can imagine themselves entering or already on the path, making it part of their environment and engaging with its elements. I just want to comment on the point you made on "language learning awareness" to "discover the path". I do think too that this is an important ability without which learners might not 'see' the possibilities around them. However, what if there is nothing to see? What if the affordances are not made available in their environment? I thought your question about whether teachers provide appropriate affordances is crucial, and I would cast it even wider. To what extent is anyone in a learner's environment (say people in a sports club a learner has joined) willing or able to provide these affordances? For example, we may tell learners to mix with 'native speakers' (sic) or DO things in the TL community (eg overseas students in NZ) etc to use the language in communicative situations - but this needs two sides. Not everyone is equally prepared to interact with L2 speakers. People generally represent affordances, but only if they let themselves be 'used' as such. For example, host families may be doing a fine job to house and feed students (an affordance for their physical wellbeing), but opportunities to interact can vary a lot, perhaps because of circumstances such as work but also because hosts may not see their role in engaging students in interaction much. They might not even like to talk with someone, maybe because they find them hard to understand. Others may resort to foreigner talk, not the best affordance either. I think it is useful therefore to think of affordances as a two-way-street (or path!) which is open to them and has not barriers across it. They need to be available AND learners need to be able to perceive them as such and learn to utilise them. I think you'll find Norton's work very enlightening in this respect (also Pavlenko, Toohey etc).
Looking forward to our next meeting.
Ute
Dear Dr Walker,
It's true that not everyone can make the most out of the 'clear path' that is offered to them. My host family experience give me this intuition how a learner perceive an opportunity to learn kiwi English in a homestay. There are other young people living in the same house with me. But I haven't seen much effort from them to learn English with the host lady. My host lady is a very supportive person who always helps her international students learn to communicate in English. However, some students don't recognize what opportunities they have at hand and 'take it for granted'. The use of affordance depends on learners' awareness of the avaiability of resources and how they will naviagate their own learning in that supportive environment.
Thank you very much for your invaluable comment.
Hi guys...
Do you think "Affordance" can stand alone to facilitate learning in a contextualize environment? Take an example, a classroom in a country (X), which the ministry of education decided medium of instruction should be in English, and they provided training courses and supported the curriculum with trained and well-selected teachers in English. Now, the scenario appears that, students must discover "dual-path" and manage to find their way by "affordance". Same time, in any learning environment, I believe learners seek building their own learning by constructing their own learning. What I am trying to out in a bulk; affordance should be worked out with any minimal guidance tool; constructivism as an example!
Let me know your comment.
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