A Socio-Cognitive Perspective on the Factors Affecting Malaysian Business Students’ Learning when Spoken in English in a Second-Language Classroom

Abstract

The current literature review of second-language learning (SLL) views second-language (L2) development as a complex system comprised of ecological interactions between multi-faceted agents that fluctuate over time, in constantly changing environments. This concept is in contrast with two dominant theories that have framed many existing studies in the field of SLL: the cognitive theory that sees cognition as the nucleus of SLL, and the sociocultural theory that maintains that SLL occurs as a result of social and cultural forces. However, little research has been done to explore the dynamic nature of SLL in a deeply comprehensive manner, in order to explain the phenomenon. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap of knowledge via a detailed investigation of how Business students at a Malaysian public university developed their English-speaking abilities in an L2 classroom context. A group of 31 undergraduate Business students (30 females and one male), as well as their English teacher, were involved in this case study, collecting data through classroom observations, interviews, a survey, as well as relevant curriculum documents, including academic records. The findings from the qualitative analysis via a unique model proposed in the study, based on a socio-cognitive theory, have revealed that learning to speak English is a complex process involving the ongoing physiological activities of adaptation and alignment. The notion of co-dependency exists between individual learners and their physical and conceptual resources, constituted in the social environment of the classroom, in order to perform the appropriate learning actions.