Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education

An Introduction through Narratives

Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear, Linda Steinman

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781783093199
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Enseignement des arts du langage

In this accessible introduction to Vygotskiansociocultural theory, narratives illuminate key concepts of the theory. These key concepts include mediation; Zone of Proximal Development; collaborative dialogue and private speech; everyday and scientific concepts; the interrelatedness of cognition and emotion; activity theory; and assessment. A final chapter provides readers with an opportunity to consider two additional narratives and apply the SCT concepts that they have become familiar with. We hear from learners, teachers and researchers in a variety of languages, contexts, ages and proficiencies. Intended for graduate and undergraduate audiences, this new edition of the textbook includes controversies in the field, improved questions for collaborative discussion and provides updated references to important work in the literature of second language teaching, learning and research.

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Mona: Across time and geography Key SCT tenets related to mediation All higher mental processes (cognitive/affective) are mediated by material and symbolic artifacts In order to understand the ‘now’, we need to trace the process of how an individual got to that point. This is the genetic method Individuals do not have ‘free will’, but are rather ‘persons-operating-with-mediational-means’ Mediational means offer both affordances and constraints Through a process of internalization, intermental activity is transformed to intramental activity Individuals change artifacts, which, in turn, change the individuals Setting of this narrative Languages: home dialect, Mandarin, English Context: English as a foreign language in China; English as a second language in the USA in an MA TESOL program, and later in Canada in a PhD program

Key terms in this chapter (see glossary at the back of this textbook) Mediation (material and symbolic) Mediational means (tools, signs/symbols, artifacts) Affordances and constraints Internalization (mastery, appropriation) Intermental (interpsychological) processes Intramental (intrapsychological) processes Genesis (ontogenesis) Agency

Mediation

Through mediation the social and individual are brought together in dialectic unity.

Mediation occurs when something comes between us and the world and acts in a shaping, planning, or directing manner.

Introduction

We interact with the material and symbolic world around us. Sometimes, our interactions are direct: a bee stings and we swat the bee. In this unmediated interaction, we use no tools or mediational means; nothing comes between us and the physical sensations (sting) and action (swatting). At other times, the interactions are materially or symbolically mediated. A bee circles, we take a book and swat the bee. In this mediated interaction, we use a material tool (the book) to extend our reach and protect us from the bee's sting. Yet another time, a bee circles, and we recall what we have read about bee behavior and move the plate of pineapple away. In this last scenario, we use a symbolic artifact – language written in a book about bee behavior – to plan and direct (mediate) our interaction with that annoying bee. That is, these material and symbolic artifacts mediate our interaction with bees.

Our goal in this chapter is to mediate your understanding of the concept of mediation! The most important artifact in accomplishing this goal is the narrative which follows these brief introductory remarks. The narrative includes reference to many artifacts that mediated the learning of an additional language, which in Mona's case, was English. By the end of this chapter, you should have an understanding of concepts such as mediation, mediational means, mediated activities and artifacts: material and symbolic.

In SCT, all human-made objects (material and symbolic) are artifacts. Examples include tables, clothes, books, numbers, languages, concepts and belief systems. But not all artifacts are mediating means; that is, they do not by virtue of their existence act as shapers of our interaction with the world. They have the potential to become mediating means, but until used as such, they offer only affordances and constraints to an individual. When that same book that was used to swat the bee is lying closed on a shelf, it is not a mediational tool. When used as a mediational means (tool), we need to consider the artifact itself and the where, why, when and how of its use.

Amply illustrated in the following story of Mona is the interweaving of artifacts as mediational means with Mona's changing and dynamic English learning goals. According to Lantolf and Thorne (2006, p. 62), within SCT, artifacts can be simultaneously material and symbolic aspects of goal-directed activity. Humans using artifacts to attain goals constitute an activity.¹ Perhaps Vygotsky's most important claim – because of its far-reaching pedagogical implications – is that all forms of human mental activity are mediated by material and/or symbolic means that are constructed within and through cultural activity.

Stories are a rich source of data and can yield new insights each time they are revisited. In this chapter, we will read of Mona's experience learning English across time and geography. Her story was told as part of a research project in which participants were interviewed to uncover their individual language learning histories. Among many questions asked by the researcher (Linda), one included asking Mona to describe moments when she had felt competent in her use of the English language, what the researcher referred to as ‘landings’. The information Mona provided relevant to her sense of being a capable user of English was fascinating and contributed much to that study (Steinman, 2007). Reading Mona's story again three years later, provided an opportunity to examine her experiences for evidence of mediation. As you read Mona's story, try to identify both material and symbolic mediational means that Mona used as she pursued her English learning goals.

This first chapter may seem packed because it is one in which we lay down the foundation for what is to come. It is one we expect you will return to often. SCT concepts which are discussed in this chapter will be revisited throughout this textbook. The essence of sociocultural theory is the interconnectedness of its concepts. In introducing sociocultural theory it is always diffcult to know where to start as it is diffcult to explicate any one concept without the aid, and an understanding, of the others. By the end of this textbook, we hope you will be able to grasp the ‘wholeness’ of the theory through an understanding of its concepts and their interrelationships.

Mona: Across time and geography

Highlights of Mona's life history

1959	Born in China
1971	Started to learn English (few affordances due to the Cultural Revolution) at age 12
1966–76	Cultural Revolution
1976	Moved to countryside. Began to teach English at age 17 at the village school. Continued to learn English from radio broadcasts
1978–80	Attended a machinery college
1980	Applied to teach English at the machinery college. Prepared for application by imitating tapes and studying a grammar book
1980–81	Taught English at the machinery college while taking a one-year teacher training certificate course
1981–84	Continued teaching at the machinery college and learning English from radio and TV in China
1984–87	BA, English major, China
1987–92	Taught EFL, China
1992–94	MA in TEFL, China
1994–97	MATESOL, United States
1998–05	PhD in an applied linguistics program, Canada

I began learning English at age twelve in a junior high school in China. At that time [in 1971], because it was during the Cultural Revolution [1966–1976], we didn't learn much English actually. After high school, when the Cultural Revolution was over, I settled down in the countryside and worked on a farm, and the village school needed an English teacher and I happened to know ABC. So that was how I became an English teacher, even though I didn't know much English! I listened to radio broadcasts designed to teach the English language. The opportunities to learn English were so limited.

I worked part-time in the village school. Mainly it was a primary school but it had a junior high class. I was 17. And I just taught ‘this is the blackboard’ and ‘there are how many students?’ ‘how many pupils?’ ‘how many teachers?’ and some things like that. Very simple. Then I attended a machinery college. When I graduated from the college, it needed an English teacher. I applied. I was 21. To prepare for the test, I listened to tapes so that I could imitate them. I don't know why, but then I could imitate much better than now. I have gotten old and now maybe I cannot.

I imitated so well that I passed that first test. Later there was a kind of interview and the final stage was to give a demonstration of teaching. I did it. I was bold when I was young. I feared nothing. Many professors from different universities were invited to choose the final person. I got the job.

I remember that to prepare that demonstration teaching, I didn't have systematic knowledge about English grammar so my father took an English grammar book one weekend and explained that to me from end to end. My father is a surgeon and in 1977 he started to study English by himself. At that time, when I wanted to apply for that job, he had only been learning for just a couple of years. He is a genius because later when some visitors from Canada and the United States came to visit the hospital, he could communicate with them, I guess because he studied medicine, and Latin can help him, right?

And I learned from that grammar book. So the next day when the examiner asked me some questions, I could answer. I was just preparing for that teaching examination. I was not interested in linguistics actually. I was just interested in the content. I liked to read stories. I studied the language for the purpose to use it. You can access another area. I thought that was the point of English learning.

The year 1980 was the year I really started to study English. I took a one-year teacher training course and at the same time I taught English in the machinery college. So I would prepare overnight and the next morning I would teach. So that's the point I really started my English learning. I think that I acquired English mostly by myself, and also transferred from my first language to the second language because discourse and communicative strategies are not isolated from language to language. You can borrow.

You asked me if I had positive feelings about learning English. When you sent me the e-mail about when I first felt that I had ‘landed’ in the English language, I asked myself what was my landing moment. I searched my memory and found the first time I felt it was in 1983. I got married and we went to the Great Wall in Beijing. Before that my husband doubted about my English and we needed to take a picture and he said ‘Dare you ask that foreigner to take a picture of us?’ So I approached that gentleman of some age and asked a favour to take a picture of us and he took a picture of us and my husband said ‘Oh now I believe you can speak English.’

I was teaching English and I taught well at that time. My students loved me and my colleagues and everybody around loved me. I felt so good. I kind of got back the motivation for study. It became clear what I wanted. During that time the market economy was invading into China and most of the English teachers found another way to make more money. That changed many of my friends. Former cla...