According to Lourdes Ortega (2011), there are different approaches to explaining variability of L2 learning across individuals. The following excerpt is related to a critical approach:

“As Norton and Toohey (2001) explain, in this perspective constructs such as motivation, aptitude, and other individual differences are reconceptualized as stemming from the interplay between people’s understanding of themselves in the world and the constraints, material and symbolic, that their worlds afford them. These understandings are dialectically shaped by the hopes and aspirations of individuals and by the power structures of the societal milieus that they inhabit”

ORTEGA, 2011, p. 179. In: SIMPSON, J. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics.

London: Routledge, 2011).

Which statement best exemplifies the critical perspective in language learning?