JAMES P. LANTOLF

The Sociocultural Approach to Second Language

Acquisition

presented by: Gabriela Ivanova

Theoretical Principles

SCT -L2 places mediation, either by other or self, at the core of development and use Mediation is achieved by psychological tools (symbolic artifacts) such as language, signs, and symbols SCT distinguishes between two types of symbolic mediation: 1. self regulation – the ability to plan, monitor, check, and evaluate

self-performance2. concept-based mediation – results from the appropriation and

internalization of cognitive tools needed for mediation in specific subject domains

Symbolic I-Me conversation (“private speech”: Flavel (1966) ) -

Language as a functional tool

Lev Vygotsky

ideal symbolic plane

concrete objective

plane

Research Methods

Research on fully formed “fossilized” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 68) processes cannot differentiate behavior arising from one or the other source

genetic method (tracks change over time)

“the functional method of double stimulation” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 74)

the forbidden-colors task

Findings: children gradually develop the ability to use external mediation and to internalize it

Mediation as Self-Regulation

• Frawley and Lantolf (1985): how does learners’ performance manifest their ability to maintain and regain self-regulation; a case on picture-sequence narration task

• Coughlan and Duff (1994): L2 self-regulation from an activity-theory perspective;

activity theory

• Lantolf and Ahmed (1989) – other-regulation

Ushakova (1994): a second language is looking in the windows cut out by the first language (p. 154)

human behavior is determined by its motive, goal, and the material circumstances in which it is enacted (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006)

Zone of Proximal Development

ZPD – the activity in which instruction and development are interrelated from the child’s very first day of life (Vygotsky, 1978)

Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994):1. different learners may require qualitatively different types of mediation2. ~ depending on the learners’ level of control over the feature3. mediation sometimes needs to be withheld4. development is determined by shifts in mediationfrom explicit to more implicit

Dunn and Lantolf (1998): dealt with themisconception that the ZPD and Krashen’s i+1 are similar concepts

Achieving though collaborative mediation what is unachievable alone

Dynamic assessment

Dynamic assessment (DA) – the systematic integration of ZPD into educational praxis as the dialectical unity of instruction and assessment (Haywood & Lidz, 2007); a term coined by Luria (1961)

Poehner (2007) – 4 month project on the oral ability of advanced university L2 French learners: transcedence – learner’s ability to appropriate and generalize mediation to new, more complex activities (Nine Months – The Pianist – Candide)

Ableeva (2010) : development in the ZPD has an upper limit Anton (2009) – the use of DA in placement testing ; students with the

same actual level of development do not necessarily project identical future development

Lantolf and Poehner (2011): integration of DA into primary-level Spanish course:

1) predetermined prompts -> missing opportunities to maximally help students; 2) instructors and students can operate within a group ZPD

Concept-based Mediation

Concepts = the meanings that cultures construct to make sense of the world

Vygotsky (1986): two types of concepts

(schooling)- spontaneous concepts – appropriated indirectly during socialization- scientific concepts – appropriated during “intentional introduction of signs … introduced as an external agent ... resulting in an often marked reorganization of activity” (Wertsch, 2007, p. 185) Paradis (2009) and Ullman (2005) – declarative and procedural

(implicit) knowledge- grammatical knowledge in L1 –internalized non-consciously- lexical knowledge – acquired through socialization and accessible to

consciousness

spontaneous scientific

Thinking for Speaking (TFS)

TFS – whether learners can develop the ability to appropriate and think through meanings available in the L2, especially within the semantic domain of motion in event narratives (Slobin, 2003)

speech + gesture = growth point TFS gesture research: motion events (Talmy, 2000)- languages that highlight manner of motion encoded in verbs (English):

skip, trudge, sidle, scamper, creep with path of motion marked in a satellite phrase: through a swamp

- languages that highlight path of motion encoded in verbs (Spanish) (salir - exit, entrar - enter) with manner encoded in an adverb or participle

• McNeill (2005): speakers simultaneously gesture to co-express movement: in English with complex manner verbs, in Spanish – with path verbs

• Can learners adopt L2 TFS patterns?• Choi and Lantolf (2008), Negueruela et. al (2004): L2 speakers

continue to rely on their L1 to mediate TFS activity

Concept-based Instruction (CBI)

systematic explicit knowledge of the relevant features of the L2

Gal’perin: Systematic-Theoretical Instruction

1. explanation – must be based on scientific knowledge 2. materialization – visual representation (graph, model or other depiction = a schema for the orienting task (SCOBA); 3. communication - uses resources provided by SCOBA that are then formulated as a plan of action; 4. verbalization – the point at which learners use language (i.e. engage in languaging – Swain, 2006) 5. internalization

Verbalization is also effective in a collaborative format (Swain, Lapkin, Knouzi, Suzuki & Brooks, 2009)

systematic verbal explanation of the concept in the target language,

including a comparison with the L1

materialization of the concept

communicative activities

verbalization

internalization

Mediation in Practice

Watch the video closely for examples of mediation and how it is achieved. In particular, do you notice any of the following: drawing attention to a feature or problem prompting providing explicit mediation

Do you think that the construction which Dona was trying to produce was within her ZPD?