Space, placement and Liminality in Adult ESOL Classes

Mike Baynham and James Simpson, Sept 2010, TESOL Quarterly

Draws on Bernsteins notion of vertical and horizontal discourse.
Draws on positioning theory.
Draws on legitimate peripheral participation.
Draws on liminality
Draws on de Certeau' s use of spaces occupied by people: institutions use strategies to define space, individuals use tactics to negotiate space

Bernstein:
Horizontal discourse is segmented. Can be discrete. Agents can have differing vocabularies with a horizontal segment. Communicative, everyday discourse.
Vertical discourse is hierarchical, and is linked strongly t the language of progression.

Baynham and James use a mixture of sociological concepts. For that reason there is a bit of vagueness about the paper. They argue that learner trajectories can be viewed as vertical progression through the space of Skills for Life (Bernstein). But they also argue that it can be viewed as moving from the periphery to the centre. They also argue that students take up identity positions in relation to the class and to space. .

They argue that the NFQ is ironically effective as the learner's own identity positions can enable them to move vertically upwards.

Th epapaer is essentially descriptive of ways of being within the available space. It is not suggestive, nor critical of the processes or institutions that form those spaces. However, it is suggestive of the value of horizontal discourse in that it suggest it as a mechanism whereby access to measured outcomes (vertical discourse) is made possible.