Acquiring English in a Constructionist Environment: A Case Study

Abstract

This qualitative exploratory research focuses on a case of a seven-year-old learner studying in a constructionist classroom. It aims at exploring how the psychological and social environment in a classroom influences a young learner’s learning of ‘English as a Foreign Language’ (EFL). Studying the psychological environment of the classroom, this study covers the effect of activities on the learner’s emotions, feelings, attitudes and motivation. The study of the classroom’s social environment looks at the effect of activities in the class on the learner-peer interactions and learner-facilitator interactions. The data comes from the participant’s journals, learner logs, classroom observations and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that topics covered in the class and facilitator-designed activities which were personally evocative and meaningful to the learner made the learner feel more connected and related to her learning environment. Building artifacts not only helped the learner to externalise and internalise her learnings but also encouraged interactions between learner-peer and learner-facilitator. These classroom interactions and the learner’s positive feelings, attitude, emotions and motivation helped the learner to build her understandings about the new English words introduced in the class and to recall, understand, and use some of those words in her communication.