Instrumental (Re: Ritual discourses

Angel M.Y. Lin (mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Mon, 18 Dec 1995 19:53:22 -0500 (EST)

Hi Peter,
I was wondering about the things you asked in your message too when I
read the Language Learning motivation literature: intrinsic, extrinsic,
instrumental... I've asked around about this... and roughly I may
offer a summary:

>From a Marxist perspective: use value, market value, exchange value:
Things that only have exchange or market value may be considered
instrumental; it seems that Lave and Wenger make use of these concepts in
their LPP book.

>From a psychological perspective: intrinsic, extrinsic (or instrumental):
intrinsic activites offere immediate satisfaction in the process of doing
the activities; whereas in activities extrinsically motivated, the
activities themselves may be very boring or unsatisfying but will lead to
some distant or future satisfying goal...

>From Heidegger's perspective: humans' primordial mode is instrumental...
but to him this word means something different from the above: we always
use other things as tools; tools ready to hand; we do not reflectively
think of them as "tools" though: we use them unreflectively as tools...
but we enter into a reflective mode about tools when the tools are not
ready to hand, a popular e.g. he gave is... everyday when you take your
shower, and soap yourself... you don't reflect on the soap as a tool;
but one day, you reach out your hand and do not find a soap there, you
enter into a conscious mode about the tool...

Hope others would give a more detailed account than my rough one..or perhaps
relate it to the use of language and language learning?

Best,
Angel

On Mon, 18 Dec 1995 SMAGOR who-is-at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu wrote:

> Jay, you used "instrumental" in a way that surprised me--it
> seemed that you associated it with communicative functions. I've
> used the term to describe the process you contrasted it with,
> that being the strictly mediational aspect of tool use (in
> this case, writing). Is there an "official" meaning to this
> term that I've missed out on? (an interesting question given
> the semiotic slant you'll undoubtedly take on it.)
>
> Peter Smagorinsky
>
>