Understanding Learners’ Participation in an ESL Classroom: A Sociocultural Perspective

This article aims to illuminate several issues on learners participation in an ESL classroom and provides a wider view of understanding them from a sociocultural perspective. The use of an ethnographic approach, which allows prolonged engagement both with the teacher and learners, has given an in-depth understanding of pivotal issues that informs how these learners contribute to the dynamics of classroom situations. This paper puts forward the idea that the way the learners behave in the classroom is not just related to the anxiety of learning a second language. Instead, some ESL students have other concerns that influence the way that they participate in the classroom.