The Struggle for Meaning

Abstract

Almost everything that goes on in a classroom is shaped, expressed, and reflected by our use of language. Yet, because language is so pervasive and at the same time so habitual and, except where recorded, so fleeting, we tend to be unaware of the inextricable relationships between the use of language in our classrooms and our students' learning. A key to understanding those relationships is implicit in E. M. Forester's phrase "only connect." Teachers "connect" with students by what they say so that their inner worlds of experience somehow make sense and become a part of the students' experience. The conduit between their experience and the experience of the teacher and subject matter is their own thinking process. Teachers tend to assume that if they speak words whose socially accepted meaning is clear there will be little problem for students in making the connection between those socially agreed upon meanings and personal meaningfulness. But that vital connection can never be assumed. For words to be full of meaning their conventional meanings must be infused by the personal experience and thought of the student. Teachers can try to facilitate, encourage, support, and guide that crucial connecting process, but they can not do it for the student. Making meaning requires that students connect their inner personal world of motivation and thought with the outer social world which they perceive and experience. Learning requires that, in the end, students make meaning for themselves. It is through actual language use that students are able to make the connection between their inner personal worlds and the external