1. The Sociocultural Approach to Second Language Acquisition
James P. Lantolf
presented by: Gabriela Ivanova

2. Theoretical Principles
Lev Vygotsky
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:
self regulation – the ability to plan, monitor, check, and evaluate self-performance
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
ideal symbolic plane
concrete objective plane

3. 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

4. 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
human behavior is determined by its motive, goal, and the material circumstances in which it is enacted (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006)
Ushakova (1994): a second language is looking in the windows cut out by the first language (p. 154)

5. 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 mediation
2. ~ depending on the learners’ level of control over
the feature
3. mediation sometimes needs to be withheld
4. development is determined by shifts in mediation
from explicit to more implicit
Dunn and Lantolf (1998): dealt with the
misconception that the ZPD and Krashen’s i+1
are similar concepts
Achieving though collaborative mediation what is unachievable alone

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?