Any story involving an intercultural encounter is expected to make some kind of statement about linguistic difference. However, this subject does not always receive an equal treatment in fiction books, TV shows or films; some narrators either simply skirt the issue or present it in an unproblematic fashion, while others deal with it in ways that seem grounded on contemporary learning theory and practice. This article invites readers to reflect on the latter perspective by briefly examining how contextualized learning has been presented by one film director and two fiction writers, whose direct experience as language educators remains unknown to this author.

In Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, communication is a central element in the story, because if the rebels on the ship towed by the U.S. Navy into the harbor of New Heaven could not speak English, they would be completely helpless before the American judicial system. Therefore, the film shows how linguistic dif-ference is worked out, first through the only slightly successful intervention of a 19th century scholar, and later through the voluntary assistance of a former slave and native speaker of Mende who becomes the official translator in the proceedings. A key moment of this sub-plot comes after some minutes into the trial, equivalent to several days in real life, when Cinque, leader of the slave revolt, rises from his seat and utters in English ‘Give us us free’.

This rather surprising event should not be taken as a fictitious twist in the plot. Following research by Krashen and Terrell (1983), it can be argued that the American courtrooms provided a context for Cinque to ‘pick up’ English, probably in the same way that he acquired Mende when he was a child. He might have first come to realize the meaning of courtroom expressions requiring a total physical response, and then he might have developed enough competence through listening and understanding, silently unaware of the rules of the language he was acquiring, until his speaking ability emerged. Cinque’s ‘Give us us free’ corroborates that language is a vehicle for communicating meanings – what mattered most to the Amistad slaves was to recover their freedom and return home; that early production is not error-free; and that the order of acquisition for second language learners is not always the same as that for first language learners, since some grammatical structures are acquired early while others are acquired late (cf. Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Therefore, Spielberg walks out in one piece, just as if he had had these two authors themselves write part of the script of his successful 1998 movie.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the references to language learning explicitly and intermittently extend for about three chapters of volume II, showing how the author captures essential aspects of this process and antedates contemporary authors in considering what we now identify as learning strategies. By eavesdropping on an old man, his son and his daughter from a shed attached to their cottage, Dr. Frankenstein’s creation first becomes aware of language and of its key role in social interaction, and then discovers the relation between spoken sounds and written symbols, as well as the existence of different languages, which happens with the arrival of an Arabian girl at the cottage. What is truly amazing is not the monster’s understanding of foreign language knowledge being imparted to the newcomer, but his realization that he could benefit from this pedagogically-structured situation.

Even if this insight is a bit hard to believe, it is undeniable that Mary Shelley made a plausible approximation to cognitive processes that would be fully studied and documented a century and a half later. Considering Oxford’s classification of learning strategies (1990), we will agree that the monster’s reflections on his acquisition of language enumerate actions and techniques of practically every category: he used contextual clues to intelligently associate words with the material objects they referred to; he then rightly set his goals and sought every conversation between the Arabian girl and her hosts as opportunities for his own practice, purposefully listening, identifying the aims of the learning tasks carried out, repeating sounds and words and, mainly compelled by his hideous physical appearance, delaying his speech production in social interaction. Even though he acknowledges his initial inability to understand the connection between words and what they meant, the monster kept self-monitoring and self-evaluating his learning, making positive statements about his successful progress which, in fact, he perceived as greater than that made by the Arabian girl. So, this passage from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can also be enjoyed as an early contribution to the idea of a good language learner more recently discussed by several authors.

In our third story, Lieutenant Peter Smith, an inexperienced special services officer of the LAPD, is assigned to investigate the murder of an all-American girl in the conference room of an L.A.-based Japanese corporation. On his way to the crime scene he gets a call advising him to get assistance from retired Captain John Connor, a man with a great knowledge of Japanese language and culture. By bringing these two officers to-gether, the powers that be not only work out a formula to solve a complicated situation of intercultural communication, but also lay the ground for a participation framework with a natural potential to facilitate learning. This is by no means an interpretation of Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; once the background information on the crime is reviewed by both officers, Connor explicitly establishes their sempai-kohai (sort of fond parent–junior man, rather than mentor–apprentice) roles, at least for their further direct contacts with the Japanese.

Although generally recognized either as a well-researched and skillfully-written police procedural or as a Japan-bashing book, to educational researchers and practitioners Rising Sun rings as an interesting account of situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation, ideas proposed by J Lave and E Wenger in their 1991 seminal work. In this thriller, the quality of the Smith–
Connor circumstantial but dynamic partnership illustrates the concept of zone of proximal development proposed by L Vygostki as ‘the distance between problem-solving abilities when exhibited by a learner working alone and that learner’s problem-solving abilities when assisted by or collaborating with more-experienced people’ (in Lave & Wenger 1991:48), a construct which is central to Lave and Wenger’s view of learning as situated in social practice. So, through interaction and collaboration with Connor, Smith acts ‘under the attenuated conditions of legitimate peripheral participation’ (Hank, in Lave & Wenger, 1991:14), with a limited degree of engagement and accountability until he acquires new knowledge and skills relevant to his work as a liaison officer, as well as the vision of a different value system, which enable him to gradually perform without the assistance of his sempai until they both succeed in nailing the bad guys.

Although each of the previous ‘case studies’ relates to different issues under discussion in the ELT domain, the three stories share the vision of learning as a process in which meaning is negotiated and renegotiated through the differing cultural backgrounds, personal histories and viewpoints of each participating individual in particular circumstances, even if their agendas are other than the transmission of ways of being, knowing, doing and valuing in the world. This is the central idea in explaining how the junior officer of Rising Sun acquired knowledge of Japanese language and culture that helped him solve a complicated case, how the monster of Frankenstein acquired a first language or how the African rebel of Amistad acquired a second language and gained his freedom, all by participating in contexts or frameworks which naturally facilitated their learning. In this sense, there is no doubt that Spielberg, Shelley, and Crichton’s respectability as creative artists is further enhanced by the reflections on contextualized learning which they promote in their own words and images.

References

Crichton, M (1992) Rising Sun. Ballantine Books
Krashen, S L & T Terrell (1983) The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Hayward, Calif.: Alemany Press
Lave, J & E Wenger (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Oxford, R L (1990) Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know, Newbury House
Shelley, M (1996) Frankenstein, Everyman

Email: gilbert@flex.uh.cu