View Content #27414

By Christopher Daradics, CASLS Language Technician

Attractor states are situations that increase the likelihood of a particular event coming to pass. The term has come to linguistic discourse by way of complexity and systems science. As an example of the concept in action, if I want to have more energy I can commit to juicing and running three days a week. This attention to my health becomes an attractor state for me actually feeling better and having more energy.

Another example of an attractor state would be that as educators we know how essential it is to simplify complex processes and concepts into more manageable, standardized pieces for developing minds. So, we work to reduce the strain and complexity inherent in the language learning process by drawing students’ attention through a coherent knowledge constructing process. We can call the process we draw them through an attractor state for language learning (and also probably for institutional progress).

Our institutions are attractor states for efficient instruction, measurable outcomes, and systematic oversight. This is because our system is designed to increase efficiency, improve favorable metrics, and enhance oversight. And, the sheer number of students worldwide who have successfully participated in conventional language instruction are a testimony to this paradigm’s productivity as an efficient, powerful, and predictable attractor state for language learning.

One place where the institutional paradigm has a harder time generating attractor states, however, has to do with language learning beyond the walls and scope of a given class or program of study (i.e. language in the wild). Institutions are often oriented to their own way of processing information. Students with alternative experiences can have a difficult time providing evidence of the skills they’ve acquired.

As language educators, a common motivation we share is the desire to serve as a bridge to the world beyond the walls of our classroom and our course. Our work as language educators can be an attractor state for our students’ language proficiency and ability to negotiate in an increasingly complex world, in the spaces between stable, institutional regularities.

In this week’s Activity of the Week students work with the concept of “attractor states” and explore how this notion can help them increase participation in in-the-wild language learning contexts.