Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
-
Upload
amayallibelula -
Category
Documents
-
view
228 -
download
0
Transcript of Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 1/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition
Journal: The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
Manuscript ID: Draft
Wiley - Manuscript type: article
Date Submitted by theAuthor:
Complete List of Authors: Mahn, Holbrook
Keywords:sociocultural language studies, Language and Social Interaction,
Second Language Acquisition
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 2/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition
Holbrook Mahn
University of New Mexico
Word Count – 5778
Reference Word Count – 306
The far-reaching influence that the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1986-1934) has
had on SLA research is represented in this volume by studies which emphasize the important
role played by semiotic mediation as a means to social interaction in social, cultural, physical,
and historical contexts. While Vygotsky did not write extensively about second language
acquisition, he provides a foundation for analyzing the processes involved in learning a second
language through his analysis of how humans acquire and develop the ability to communicate
through language and, in so doing, create the mental system that makes humans human. His
study of the interrelationship between thinking processes – perceiving, processing, organizing,
and storing information from the environment and using it to guide action – and language
processes – using signs/symbols to make and communicate meaning in social interaction – can
be used to understand the interrelationship between thinking and language processes involved in
communicating meaning through a second language.
The system of meaning created by the unification of thinking and language processes was
at the center of Vygotsky’s work and constitutes the foundation upon which rise the concepts for
which he is best known, including the zone of proximal development, social interaction,
ge 1 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 3/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
sign/symbol use to mediate activity and the consequent development of higher psychological
processes, inner and private speech, play, and the role of the social/cultural/historical situation of
development. Many of the authors in this volume use these concepts to guide their investigations
into all aspects of second language development.
Not as well known is the fact that Vygotsky used the concept system of meaning to study the
development of the human psyche by analyzing higher psychical processes such as logical
memory, voluntary attention, and verbal perception in relation to language use and development.
Vygotsky’s ultimate goal was to reveal the origins and development of human consciousness.
The analysis of mental systems was the central focus for the decade-long research Vygotsky
conducted with colleagues in experimental studies and theoretical analysis. He conceived of
consciousness as a system of systems and to begin his investigation of consciousness he analyzed
the system of meaning that is created through the unification of thinking and language processes.
Nevertheless, a focus on Vygotsky’s concept of system of meaning has not been widely explored
in second language research informed by sociocultural theory, nor in sociocultural studies in
general. The analysis of this concept is central to the reconceptualization of Vygotsky’s work
described in “Research Methods and Sociocultural Approaches in Second Language
Acquisition” in this volume and in Mahn (2008). In this article I describe the development of
Vygotsky’s analysis of the system that results from and in turn develops language use and then
describe how this analysis might illuminate the processes involved in second language
acquisition and development.
Internal System of Meaning
A fundamental concept for sociocultural studies is a focus on the role of signs/symbols in
the mediation of human activity. “Vygotsky’s fundamental theoretical insight is that the higher
Page 2
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 4/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
forms of human mental activity are always and everywhere mediated by symbolic means”
(Lantolf, 1994, p. 418). Vygotsky acknowledged that mediation was central to his theoretical
analysis, but at a meeting with his closest collaborators near the end of his life, he emphasized
that the focus of their work was not mediation in and of itself but rather the internal system of
meaning created through mediated social interaction. He recognized that they had focused on the
sign and the sign operation in their earlier investigations, but in doing so “we ignored that the
sign has meaning” (1997a, p. 130) and consequently did not study the development of meaning.
“We proceeded from the principle of the constancy of meaning, we discounted meaning” (1997a,
p. 133). He noted a prevalent error in the linguistic and psychological theories of his time in their
approaches to meaning – taking the development of meaning for granted, viewing meaning as
stable and unchanging. In these theories the constancy of meaning is “given as the starting point
which terminates the process as well” (p. 132) and therefore the origins and the course of
development of meaning are ignored. In that same meeting Vygotsky clarified his conception of
meaning:
Meaning is not the sum of all the psychological operations which stand behind the
word. Meaning is something more specific – it is the internal structure of the sign
operation. It is what is lying between the thought and the word. Meaning is not
equal to the word, not equal to the thought. This disparity is revealed by the fact
that their lines of development do not coincide. (Vygotsky, 1997a, p. 133)
Focusing on the systemic nature of consciousness, Vygotsky looked at the development of
meaning as a process, one that is shaped by its systemic relationship with other psychological
functions, processes, structures, and systems. The system of meaning is part of larger systems –
the human psyche and human consciousness – and therefore, “The structure of meaning is
ge 3 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 5/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
determined by the systemic structure of consciousness” (1997a, p. 137). (I use system of meaning
– meaning as an internal system of the sign operation – instead of structure of meaning to
describe the internal mental system that is created through the unification of thinking and
language processes in communicative social interaction. Structure can imply something
anatomical and does not capture the dynamic and systemic nature of meaning.) Unlike other
psychologists of his time who examined mental entities by isolating them in their external
manifestations or by conceptualizing them as being separated from other mental entities,
Vygotsky analyzed “the systemic relationships and connections between the child’s separate
mental functions in development” (1987, p. 323) and conceived of the relationships between
functions as constituting “a psychological system” (1997a, p. 92).
In addition to conceptualizing the system of meaning created through the sign operation
as a psychological system, Vygotsky recognized other systems of meaning based on
mathematics, music, art, aesthetic response, volition and affect, among others. Because his main
focus was on the system that results from the unification of language and thinking processes,
“system of meaning” in this article refers to that particular system. In describing the system of
meaning I do not rely on secondary sources, but rather draw on Vygotsky’s writings, particularly
those which explain: his methodological approach; his analysis of predominant theories about the
relationship of thinking and speaking; his phylogenetic analysis of the development of thinking
and speaking; his examination of the structure of generalization; his description of the
development of a system of concepts; and his analysis of times of qualitative transformation in a
child’s development including: the development of higher psychological processes, periods of
crisis, and the development of conceptual thinking.
Page 4
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 6/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
In his use of the concept mental system Vygotsky emphasized that the relationships
among mental functions determine the character of the system. The functions in and of
themselves might not qualitatively change, but the relationships among them go through
transformations leading to different stages of development. “Such functions as voluntary
attention, logical memory, higher forms of perception and movement, which thus far have been
studied in isolation, as separate psychological facts, now, in the light of our experiments, appear
essentially as phenomena of one order – united in their genesis and in their psychological
structure” (Vygotsky, 1999, p. 38). These functions are “internally connected with the
development of the symbolic activity of the child” (p. 39).
Vygotsky saw a dialectical relationship between language and thinking processes with
each process shaping and being shaped by the other in an internal mental system that resulted
from their unification. Vygotsky devoted most of his final work, Thinking and Speech, to
describing investigations into the origins and nature of this unification and the new entity created
by thinking and language processes – verbal thinking. The essence of this entity is not fully
conveyed in its translation into verbal thinking, because verbal in the adjectival position tends to
minimize the nature and development of thinking processes as a precondition for and result of
the development of language. To try and minimize the confusion that the English translation
introduces and to emphasize that Vygotsky was examining the unification of the thinking and
language processes and the unity that they form, I will use the acronym TLPU (thinking and
language processes unity) to refer to the verbal thinking/mental speaking, thinking/language
unity that is the central focus of Vygotsky’s work.
In examining the processes through which both the human species and individuals
create(d) internal mental systems as they developed the ability to receive and produce signs to
ge 5 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 7/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
communicate meaning, Vygotsky made the analysis of the origins and nature of the TLPU the
central focus of his investigations. He conceived of mental activity as a process that is organized
as a system with other systems, in the development of which there are times of qualitative
change during which fundamental, essential transformations in the TLPU and its relationship to
other mental functions occur. The stage that individuals have reached in the development of their
systems of meaning will influence their second language acquisition and development.
Methodological Approach
The methodological approach Vygotsky developed to study the TLPU can also help
inform investigations into the processes involved in acquiring and developing communicative
capacity in a second language. For his approach, Vygotsky (1998) relied on Marx and Engels’
work, which sought to find the essence of the phenomenon being investigated by analyzing its
origins – the forces that brought it into existence – the forces that guide its development and
bring about change that leads to qualitative transformation, and the forces that take it out of
existence. They emphasized finding laws that govern the change or motion of the phenomenon
being investigated and used the notion of the unification of distinct processes to explain
development. (See “Sociocultural Approaches to SLA Research” in this volume for further
discussion on Vygotsky’s methodological approach.)
To find the essence of the unification of thinking and language processes Vygotsky
sought an aspect of this unification that was primary, basic, irreducible, essential, and yet still
maintained the essence of the whole – the TLPU. “What then is a unit that possesses the
characteristics inherent to the integral phenomenon verbal thinking [the TLPU] and that cannot
be further decomposed? In our view, such a unit can be found in [ znachenie slova] the inner
aspect of the word, its meaning” (1987, p. 47). In his investigation of znachenie slova, Vygotsky
Page 6
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 8/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
examined the social origins of the ability for both the human species and individual to use
language to communicate, as well as analyzing the origins and development of the internal
mental systems that are necessary for and result from this communicative ability. He drew on
research studies on higher primates’ social interactions and the communicative capacities that
facilitate those interactions. He also examined studies that investigated the nature of human
social groupings still in early stages of historical human development.
This laid the foundation for the analysis of znachenie slova, but because of the way
znachenie slova has been translated into English, Vygotsky’s investigation of it is often not
accounted for in interpretations of his work. The Russian znachenie means meaning and slova
means word , but Vygotsky made clear that he was using slova as a synecdoche (Kozulin, 1990,
p. 151) to refer to language use as a whole, as in “in the beginning was the word” (Vygotsky,
1987, p. 284). Because znachenie slova is translated into English as word meaning the focus in
interpretations of Vygotsky’s work has generally been on the meaning of words, on the external
use and relationships of words, and on the role of words in semiotic mediation; as such the
relationship with thinking processes tends to be overlooked. As a consequence, Vygotsky’s
concept of the internal system of meaning has been neglected, which is a motivating factor for a
reconceptualization of Vygotsky’s work. The concept that Vygotsky held central to his
theoretical framework and that provided a focus for his research – znachenie slova – should be
central to reconceptualizing his work.
In Thinking and Speech Vygotsky analyzed znachenie slova from three perspectives: its
origins (genetic); the development of and interconnection to psychological functions and
processes related to it (structural); and its psychological activity and motivating factors
(functional). Through this analysis, Vygotsky was able to “disclose the internal essence that lies
ge 7 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 9/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
behind the external appearance of the process, its nature, its genesis” (1997b, p. 70). This was an
important part of Vygotsky’s approach to second language studies as well. In his article on “The
Question of Multilingual Children” Vygotsky writes that in setting up studies on the bilingual
child a prerequisite is “to descend from the surface, from taking into account external traits and
indicators, and to penetrate deeply, to take into account internal structures of the processes that
are directly involved in the speech development of the child” (Vygotsky, 1997b, p. 257).
As a preliminary step in the study of the TLPU’s internal structures, of its qualitative and
quantitative characteristics, categories, and concepts, Vygotsky argued that, “through an analysis
of available information on phylogenesis and ontogenesis we must indentify a point of departure
for research on the genesis of verbal thinking” (1987, p. 40). He did this first through a critical
analysis of the theories of Piaget and Stern on the relationship between thinking and speaking;
then he examined the “theoretical issues concerning the genetic roots of thinking and speech” (p.
40) – the origins of symbolic representation in early humans and the comparison and contrast of
human thinking and language use with higher primates’ thinking and communication abilities.
Vygotsky examined the origins of znachenie slova in an individual as a process that has a
foundation in the infant’s physical brain and in the elementary thinking processes with which
humans are born and which develop in infancy – mechanical memory, involuntary attention,
perception, etc. He described the ways in which these elementary mental functions are shaped by
the sociocultural situation of development into which children are born and by their social
interactions in those situations. How an infant’s developing perception, attention, and memory
lead to communication between the child and caretakers, with the latter ascribing communicative
intent to the infant’s gestures and sounds. Through this early social interaction children develop
communicative intentionality and the initial use of symbols to convey meaning – key elements in
Page 8
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 10/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
the acquisition of language. A qualitative transformation in social interaction takes place as
communication of meaning is accomplished through the use of signification and the development
of language use, and through the ability to generalize in “the creation and the use of signs”
(1997b, p. 55).
It turns out that just as social interaction is impossible without signs, it is also
impossible without meaning. To communicate an experience of some other
content of consciousness to another person, it must be related to a class or group
of phenomena. As we have pointed out, this requires generalization. Social
interaction presupposes generalization and the development of verbal meaning;
generalization becomes possible only with the development of social interaction.
(1987, p. 48)
Two basic functions of speech – reflection of reality in a generalized way and communicative
social interaction – are important components of the system of meaning and thus of the TLPU.
“Therefore, it may be appropriate to view znachenie slova not only as a unity of thinking and
speech, but as a unity of generalization and social interaction, a unity of thinking and
communication” (1987, p. 49).
Vygotsky ascribed a central role to play in the development of a child’s ability to
generalize. “Our experiments bring us to the conclusion that play is the basic path of the child’s
cultural development and specifically the development of his sign activity” (1999, p. 52). The
ability to generalize, which is developed through play and communicative social interaction, is
manifest internally in the structure of generalization that a child develops, a structure that
provides the foundation for the system of meaning. In Thinking and Speech, Vygotsky (1987)
describes in depth the development of this structure of generalization as the child acquires
ge 9 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 11/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
language. In tracing the development and changes in the structure of generalization, Vygotsky
described the different modes of thinking that create “the formation of connections, the
establishment of relationships among different concrete impressions, the unification and
generalization of separate objects, and the ordering and the systematization of the whole of the
child’s experience” (p. 135). Vygotsky emphasized the processes necessary to acquire these
modes of thinking – voluntary attention, partitioning, comparison, analysis, abstraction, and
synthesis – essential for the development of the TLPU and the structure of generalization. In
examining the origin of the structure of generalization, Vygotsky studied the initial unification of
the thinking and speaking processes as a child through interaction with an adult applies a word to
a fused or amalgamated visual image. “In his perception, thinking, and action, the child has a
tendency to connect the most varied elements, elements that may have no internal connections.
Elements may sometimes be connected on the basis of a single impression. The result is an
undifferentiated, fused image” (1987, p. 134), a syncretic heap or group, based on the syncretic
relationship between young children’s perception and their activity.
Vygotsky called the next stage in the development of the structure of generalization
“complexive thinking” in which the child includes objects in a complex based on empirical
connections. He described five different phases through which children’s forms of thinking move
in complexive thinking. These forms of thinking are always in a dialectical relationship with the
changing content of thinking – this dialectical relationship is key to understanding Vygotsky's
claim that znachenie slova’s development includes times of qualitative transformations between
syncretic and complexive thinking and between complexive thinking and conceptual thinking.
In his analysis of the transformation from complexive thinking to conceptual thinking,
Vygotsky focused on the origins and development of the pseudoconcept , which originates in a
Page 10
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 12/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
child and an adult both focusing on an object designated by a word, and in that shared interactive
contact they are able to communicate; however, they use different forms of thinking to arrive at
the point where they are using the same word for an object. “The child thinks the same content
differently, in another mode, and through different intellectual operations” (1987, p. 152). The
child and the adult have different modes of thought as the foundation for their systems of
meaning. “The child and adult understand each other with the pronunciation of the word ‘dog’
because they relate the word to the same object, because they have the same concrete content in
mind. However, one thinks of the concrete complex ‘dog’ [the pseudoconcept] and the other of
the abstract concept ‘dog’” (p. 155).
Vygotsky, drawing on the work of Paulhan, claimed that children have their own sense of
the dog. As a word is internalized sense plays a big role in how that word fits in with the child’s
system of meaning. Sense both develops and is developed by the system of meaning. Vygotsky
described sense (smysl) as an important component in the system of meaning with the more
stable lexical meaning as an essential but subordinate part of sense. “In inner speech, we find a
predominance of the word’s sense over its meaning” (1987, p. 274). The process through which a
word and its meaning change through internalization is key to understanding inner speech.
Vygotsky detailed the process in which meaning through social interaction is incorporated into
an individual’s sense and the way in which “the meaning of the word in inner speech is an
individual meaning, a meaning understandable only in the plane of inner speech” (p. 279). There
are always going to be degrees of divergence among meanings that have developed in a
particular social setting and the sense of words or concepts incorporated into an individual’s
system of meaning. Vygotsky explained that “[t]o some extent, [sense] is unique for each
consciousness and for a single consciousness in varied circumstances” (p. 276). The sense of a
ge 11 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 13/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
word is never complete, but evolves with the system of meaning of which it is a part through
activity in the social situation of development. Sense as “the aggregate of all the psychological
facts that arise in our consciousness as the result of the word” (pp. 275-276) is a key component
in the system of meaning. “Ultimately, the word’s real sense is determined by everything in
consciousness which is related to what the word expresses…[and] ultimately sense depends on
one’s understanding of the world as a whole and on the internal structure of personality” (p.
276).
Essential to this process is the lifelong, dynamic, dialectic interplay between meaning and
the sense that develops as a part of the system of meaning. Sense and the system of meaning both
develop through the internalization of meanings in social interaction. Sense develops from the
very beginning of a child’s life with the trial-and-error period of the syncretic images, through
the development of everyday and scientific concepts, through adolescents' growing conscious
awareness of their own thinking processes – conceptual thinking – to adults' life-long learning. In
this process there is an ongoing interaction between, on the one hand, the system of meaning and
the plane of sense within it and, on the other, the existing, relatively stable, external social
meanings. The way in which social meaning is transformed as it is internalized can be seen at the
level of single words in the difference between the individual’s sense of a word and common
usage based on dictionary meanings. The word mother , for example, evokes for every individual
a very personal sense. At the same time there is a common understanding of the sociocultural
meaning of the word denoting both a biological and cultural relationship. This divergence exists
in both the internalization and externalization processes. Language can never fully express an
individual’s sense of a concept or thought.
Page 12
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 14/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
Connected to an individual’s system of meaning and social systems of meaning are an
individual’s system of concepts and social systems of concepts. Children’s interaction with adults
using the pseudoconcept, as described above, lays the groundwork for the next transformation in
conceptual development – the move from concrete to abstract thinking, from complexive to
conceptual thinking. Although the foundation for concepts is laid when children begin to acquire
language, they do not use concepts systematically until they reach adolescence. As the child
begins to isolate and abstract separate elements, and “to view these isolated, abstracted elements
independently of the concrete and empirical connections in which they are given” (Vygotsky,
1987, p. 156), the system of meaning undergoes a qualitative transformation with the child’s use
of conceptual thinking. “The concept arises when several abstracted features are re-synthesized
and when this abstract synthesis becomes the basic form of thinking through which the child
perceives and interprets reality” (p. 159). Developing an “internal meaningful perception of their
own mental processes” (1987, p. 190), thereby gaining conscious awareness of their thinking
processes, is the most important psychological process in the development of conceptual
thinking in adolescence. This introspection “represents the initial generalization or abstraction of
internal mental forms of activity” (p. 190). Vygotsky argued that this generalization and
abstraction can only be accomplished through the process of developing a system of concepts,
concepts related to the social expectations of adolescents, concepts that are introduced externally
primarily through school, concepts that are organized into systems and interconnected with
multiple other systems – what Vygotsky referred to as scientific concepts. These concepts are
internalized in a system of concepts, which, as Vygotsky stated, becomes similar to the system of
meaning during this transition from complexive to conceptual thinking. “[P]sychologically, the
development of concepts and the development of znachenie slova are one and the same process”
ge 13 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 15/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
(1987, p. 180). Recognizing that the development of meaning and concepts takes place through
the interrelationships of systems within systems and understanding where a student is in that
process are important for teachers, whether working with school-aged or adult second language
learners. The recognition that an adult learner has developed a system of meaning in their native
language as described above by Vygotsky is an important initial step when working with adults
learning a second language.
Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition and Development
Vygotsky argued that learning a second language “must be studied in all its breadth and
in all its depth as it affects the whole mental development of the child’s personality taken as a
whole” (1997b, p. 259). Analyzing the concept of the system of meaning was key to
understanding this mental development for Vygotsky. He advocated that studies of second
language learners take “into account the whole aggregate of social factors of the child’s
intellectual development” and that they use the genetic method to trace both this development
“with all of its multifaceted qualities” (p. 257) as well as to explore the complexity of this
process, which depends “on the age of the children, on the nature of the meeting of the one
language with the other and finally, what is most important, on the pedagogical effect on the
development of the native and the foreign language” (p. 257). His aim was “to take into account
internal structures of the processes that are directly involved in speech development of the child”
(p. 257). Even though he laid out key criteria for studying second language acquisition,
Vygotsky did not conduct research in this area himself.
He did use the processes involved in learning a second or a foreign language to draw an
analogy with the processes involved in the development of concepts in systems or scientific
concepts as both are marked by a level of conscious awareness not present in learning one’s
Page 14
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 16/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
native language or acquiring everyday, spontaneous concepts. “The development of scientific
concepts begins in the domain of conscious awareness and volition. It grows downward into the
domain of the concrete, into the domain of personal experience.” (1987, p. 220). Everyday
concepts develop in the opposite direction, from the concrete to the more abstract, toward
conscious awareness and volition. “The link between these two lines of development reflects
their true nature. This is the link of the zone of proximal and actual development …. Scientific
concept restructure and raise spontaneous concepts to a higher level, forming their zone of
proximal development” (p. 220).
Vygotsky compared the relationship between the paths of development of concepts in
systems (scientific) and spontaneous concepts with the relationship that exists between the
acquisition of a native language and a second language:
The child learns a foreign language in school differently than he learns his native
language He does not begin learning his native language with the study of the
alphabet, with reading and writing, with the conscious and intentional
construction of phrases, with the definition of words, or with the study of
grammar. Generally, however, this is all characteristic of the child’s first steps in
learning a foreign language. The child learns his native language without
conscious awareness or intention; he learns a foreign language with conscious
awareness and intention. (Vygotsky, 1987, p. 221)
The level of conscious awareness that children have of their own thinking processes will affect
their acquisition of a second language. In drawing a comparison between learning to write and
learning a second language, Vygotsky argued that both processes involve a level of conscious
awareness that is not present when children learn their native language. When they enter school,
ge 15 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 17/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
children begin to develop a conscious awareness of their attention and memory, but they do not
have a conscious awareness of their own thinking processes that they acquire in adolescence.
Where children are in the process of development of their internal systems of meaning is related
to the level of conscious awareness they have developed.
Vygotsky outlined a number of other differences between the processes of learning a
native language and learning a foreign language including affective and emotional concerns, and
concluded by stating, “The child already possesses a system of meanings in the native language
when he begins to learn a foreign language. This system of meanings is transferred to the foreign
language” (1987, p. 221). Vygotsky did acknowledge that children who acquire two languages
from infancy develop two relatively distinct systems of meaning through each language. Citing a
study by Ronget, he stated, “The result of the experiment showed that the child acquired both
languages in parallel and almost completely independently of each other” (1997b, p. 255).
Along with Vygotsky’s notion of the system of meaning being important in looking at
second language learners, his theory of child development helps us understand “the whole mental
development.” While Vygotsky did not live long enough to produce a fully articulated theory of
child development, he did provide a theoretical framework, especially in the fifth volume of his
Collected Works entitled Child Psychology. His focus was on times in a child’s development
when the interdependent relationships between psychological processes undergo a qualitative
transformation, times for which Vygotsky used the word “crisis.”
The crisis of the newborn separates the embryonal period of development from
infancy. The one-year crisis separates infancy from early childhood. The crisis at
age three is a transition from early childhood to preschool age. The crisis at age
seven is a link that joins preschool and school ages. Finally, the crisis at age
Page 16
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 18/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
thirteen coincides with the turning point in development at the transition from
school age to puberty. (“The Problem of Age,”1998, p. 193)
These transformations, which result from and bring about qualitative changes in the relationships
among psychological processes, dramatically affect the development of children’s systems of
meaning and also affect the acquisition of a second language. Vygotsky described the
characteristics of each of these qualitative transformations and the ways in which social
interactions, language, and needs and motives change in each of the periods. He used the concept
of perezhivanie – how people experience and make meaning of their experience – to analyze
these qualitative changes, because “the essence of every crisis is a reconstruction of the internal
experience, a reconstruction that is rooted in the change of the basic factor that determines the
relation of the child to the environment, specifically, in the change in needs and motives that
control the behavior of the child” (1998, p. 296). The changes in these internal relationships also
affect children’s experiences of their sociocultural environment and the meaning that they make
of these experiences. Vygotsky called this experience of meaning – “one of the most complex
problems of contemporary psychology and psychopathology of the personality” (p. 290).
“Thus, in concept development, the movement from the general to the specific or from the
specific to the general is different for each stage in the development of meaning depending on
the structure of generalization dominant at that stage” (p. 226). Understanding where children are
in their concept development can help us understand their process of acquiring a second
language.
Conclusion
The fundamental concept that all mental activity is part of an interconnected system of
systems is central to all of Vygotsky’s work. In approaching second language research, he
ge 17 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 19/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
stressed the importance of studying the interconnectedness of the processes of second language
acquisition with processes involved with acquiring one’s native language and with the processes
at play in the development of the human brain/mind unity – the development of the human
psyche. Although he neither wrote about nor researched second language acquisition extensively,
Vygotsky did provide a theoretical framework and a methodological approach to guide research
into second language acquisition. Unfortunately, essential aspects of his theoretical framework
and methodological approach have been overlooked by researchers who rely on his approach and
by interpreters of his work. I explore reasons why this has occurred in more depth in Mahn
(2009), looking at: 1) translation issues, 2) the repression of his ideas by the Stalin-led
bureaucracy, 3) the lens provided by Leontiev and Activity Theory when Vygotsky’s work was
rehabilitated following the Khrushchev revelations in 1956; 4) Vygotsky’s reliance on the
methodological approach developed by Marx and Engels and the effect of different ideological
perspectives on this reliance; and 5) a dependence on secondary sources and interpretations
rather than primarily on Vygotsky’s actual writings. For these reasons, among others, an
essential aspect of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework – the system of meaning that is created
through language use – znachenie slova – through the unification of thinking processes and
language processes – has often been overlooked.
In Mahn (2008), I provide an overview of this essential concept – znachenie slova – that
provided the focus for Vygotsky’s investigation of the relationships between thinking and
language use in the development of human consciousness. Without exploring the essence of
Vygotsky’s work – meaning as a system within systems in the “thinking body,” – there has been
a tendency in SLA research to extrapolate a concept of Vygotsky’s from his overall theoretical
framework and use it to study some aspect of human development. This isolation is problematic
Page 18
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 20/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
because it leads to overlooking an essential aspect of Vygotsky’s work – his investigation of
human development as a system within dynamic, physical, social, cultural, natural, and historical
systems at the center of which are the processes and interactions through which language is
acquired and a system of meaning is created.
Vygotsky continually emphasized the need to go beyond appearance, beyond the surface
manifestations of a phenomenon, and to look at its interconnectedness with other systems and its
process of development from its beginnings to its end. That advice aptly applies to the study of
his work. In critiquing Vygotsky’s theoretical framework, sociocultural researchers have often
relied more heavily on interpretations of his work than on his actual writings. Doing an in-depth
analysis of his work as a whole, examining his conception of the interconnectedness of mental,
physical, social, cultural, and historical systems in constant states of change, yields an
understanding of the essence of his theoretical framework. He emphasized that this framework,
like all phenomenon, changes and develops with new findings, new knowledge, and new ways to
investigate mental functioning and its material base. Vygotsky drawing from Spinoza saw the
unity of the material and the mental in the “thinking body.” This unification created the human
psyche – which included mental systems based in the brain and the chemicals and electrical
impulses involved in the intake of information from the external world and it perception,
processing, storing, and accessing to guide activity.
In order reconceptualize Vygotsky’s theoretical framework, it is necessary first to
understand the foundation of that theoretical framework and its development. Such an
understanding is essential in using this framework to guide investigations of second language
acquisition and can best be achieved by reading Vygotsky’s his major work Thinking and Speech
in its most complete form (1987) (translation issues notwithstanding) rather than abridgements of
ge 19 of 21
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 21/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
that work (1962, 1986). His work is complex and challenging, but his theoretical framework and
the methodological approach that flows from it can make a significant contribution to the
analysis of language acquisition and its role in the development of the human mind/psyche.
See Also
Mahn. H. & Reierson, S. “Research Methods and Sociocultural Approaches in Second Language
Acquisition”
References
Kozulin, A. (1990). Vygotsky’s psychology: A biography of ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Lantolf, J. (1994). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. The Modern Language
Journal 78(4) 418-420.
Mahn, H. (2009). Vygotsky’s methodological approach: A blueprint for the future of
psychology. In A. Toomela & J. Valsiner (Eds.). Methodological Thinking in
Psychology: 60 Years Gone Astray? (pp. 297–323). Charlotte: NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Mahn, H. (2008). Vygotsky’s Analysis of the System of Meaning. Paper presented at the 2008
ISCAR Conference, San Diego, CA, September 2008. Available at:
http:www.unm.edu/~hmahn/publications/som
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Problems of general psychology. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky:
Vol. 1. Including the volume Thinking and Speech. New York, NY: Plenum.
Page 20
John Wiley & Sons
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
8/17/2019 Vygotsky and SLA - Encyclopedia. Holbrook
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vygotsky-and-sla-encyclopedia-holbrook 22/22
F o r P
e e r R
e v i e w
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997a). Problems of the theory and history of psychology . The collected works
of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 3. New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1997b). The history of the development of higher mental functions. The collected
works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 4. Problems of the theory and history of psychology . New
York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1998). Child psychology. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 5.
Problems of the theory and history of psychology. New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1999). Scientific legacy. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 6.
Problems of the theory and history of psychology. New York: Plenum.
Suggested Readings
Vygotsky, L. S. (1993). The fundamentals of defectology (Abnormal psychology and learning
disabilities. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 2. New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1994). The Vygotsky reader. R. van der Veer & J. Valsiner (Eds.).Cambridge,
MA: Blackwell.
ge 21 of 21 Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics