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Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning: Introduction to the Special IssueAuthor(s): James P. LantolfSource: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Winter, 1994), pp. 418-420Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations

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7/30/2019 Lantolf 1994 Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning - Introduction to the Special Issue

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Sociocultural Theory andSecond Language LearningIntroductiono theSpecial Issue

JAMESP. LANTOLF

DepartmentfModern anguagesndLinguisticsCornell niversityIthaca,NY 14853Email: pl5@cornell.edu

THE PAPERS INCLUDED IN THIS ISSUE RE-

port thefindingsof studieson various aspectsof second language learning informedby thesocioculturaltheoryof minddeveloped bytheRussianpsychologist nd psycholinguist ev S.

Vygotskynd his colleagues. Researcherswork-

ing on educational problems in general, andthose of us workingon questions relatingtosecond language learning,in particular,havefound Vygotsky's deas challenging, at times

perplexing, utalways timulatingnd informa-tive.Althoughthe details of socioculturalthe-

oryarefleshed out in the sixpapers thatfollow,it is important o underscore from the outsetthatVygotsky'sundamental heoretical nsightis thathigherformsof human mental activityare always,nd everywhere,mediatedy ymbolicmeans.

Vygotsky eveloped his proposals on sym-bolicmediationbased on analogywith heproc-esses throughwhichhumans mediate their n-teractionwiththeworldof

objects throughhe

use ofphysical ools.Mediation,whether hysi-cal or symbolic, s understoodto be the intro-duction of an auxiliarydevice into an activitythat thenlinks humans to the worldof objectsor tothe worldof mentalbehavior.Just s physi-cal tools (e.g.,hammers, ulldozers, omputers,etc.) allowhumans to organize and altertheir

physicalworld,Vygotskyeasonedthat ymbolictoolsempowerhumanstoorganizeand controlsuch mental processes as voluntary ttention,logical problem-solving, lanning and evalua-

tion,voluntarymemory, nd intentional earn-

ing. Included among symbolictools are mne-monic devices, lgebraic symbols, iagrams nd

graphs, and, most importantly,anguage. Al-

thoughphysical nd symbolic ools are collab-

oratively onstructedbythemembersof a cul-ture over time, a crucial differencebetweenthese twoformsof mediation resides in theirrelative directionality. The former are out-

wardlydirected towardobjects,hile the latter

are inwardly irectedtoward ubjects.hus, sym-bolic tools are the means throughwhich hu-mans are able toorganize and maintain controlover the self and itsmental,and even physical,activity.

Accordingto Vygotsky, ental developmentarises as a consequence of the interactionoftwo distinct rocesses,one withbiologicalrootsand theotherwith ocioculturalorigins.Thesetwodevelopmental inesmergeduringthe on-

togenesisof children.ResearchbyVygotskyndotherswas able to demonstrate hat once chil-dren begin to integrate symbols as auxiliarymeans of mediation into their physical andmentalactivity,his ctivityakes on a markedlydifferent,nd culturallynfluenced,character.To illustrate he difference etween mediatedand nonmediatedmentalfunctioning,we canconsiderthesimpleexample of someone tryingto rememberwhich temsto purchasein a gro-cerystore.The person can attempt o remem-ber the itemsthroughrepeated rehearsaluntilthe itemsare memorizedor can remember he

itemsbywriting hemdownon a piece ofpaper.Althoughbothcases entail the use oflanguageas a mediationaltool, in the first nstance,the

person establishesa more directlink betweenthe itemsand theirmemory race;while n the

TheModern anguage ournal,8, iv (1994)0026-7902/94/418-4201.50/0?1994 TheModern anguage ournal

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James Lantolf 419

second case, the person creates an even more

powerfulauxiliary ink by generatinga shop-ping list,whichgreatly ases themental strainof trying to imprint the items into one's

memory.Symbolicallymediated mental functions reappropriatedbychildren as they arryout spe-cific culturallydefined tasks under the guid-ance (i.e., mediation) of other ndividuals e.g.,parents,older siblings, eachers,etc.),who ini-

tially ssumemost of theresponsibilityorcar-

rying ut the tasks.Over time,children assumeincreased responsibilityororganizingand de-

ployingtheir own mentalactivityn tasksand,under normal circumstances, ltimately ttainthe abilityto function independentlyof the

other's guidance. Thus, at the outset of on-togenesis,conscious mental activitys distrib-uted and ointlyconstructed n thedialogic in-teractions that arise between children and

representatives f the culture.As childrenpar-ticipate n thesecollaborative nteractions, heyappropriatefor hemselves hepatterns fplan-ning, attending, thinking,remembering,etc.that the culture through its representativesvalues. Hence, what s at one point sociallyme-diated mental processing evolves into self-mediatedprocessing.

Given that ollaborativementalactivitys car-ried out primarilythrough linguisticmeans

(initially peakingbut laterwriting,n literatecultures, at least), Vygotsky rgued that self-controlledcognitivefunctioningwould also be

linguisticallymediated and would carrytracesof tssocial beginnings.This self-controlledin-

guisticmediation is referred o as inner r pri-vate, peech. ecause of the developmentalrela-

tionshipbetween social and innerspeech,evenwhen we appear to be actingalone in "splendidisolation,"as for

xample,when we take tests n

the educational setting,we are not alone. Weexternalizeon paper, assuming t s a paper and

pencil test,the results of our having partici-pated in distributedactivitymediated by dia-

logue withother ndividuals n our immediate,and even distant,past.

Mediation is the common thematicthreadwhich runs throughthe six papers included inthis issue. Althoughthe papers are bound to-

getherbythisfundamental ocioculturalprinci-ple, each considers its implicationsforsecond

language learningand performance rom dif-ferent, houghrelated,perspective.Hence, thereader of thisspecial issue will encountertheimportant orollary tatements fsocioculturaltheorywhichemanatefrom tscore principleof

linguisticallymediated cognition.The first a-per, by McCafferty,resentsa synthesis f the

empiricalresearchthathas been carriedout todate on the functionof privatespeech in sec-ond

language learningand

performance.Mc-

Cafferty onsiders the divergentclaims thathavebeen made regarding heregulatory unc-tion of verbalaspectin theprivate peech ofL2learners. He discusseshowspeakerproficiencyand culturalbackground may nfluencethefre-quency of privatespeech production and ad-dresses whathe sees as productiveareas of fu-ture research, including the relationshipbetweenL2 private speech and nonverbalges-turesand comparativeresearchon the privatespeech of tutoredand nontutoredL2 learners.

The second paper,byAppel and Lantolf, re-sentsthe resultsof a comparative studyof theself-mediationfLI and advanced L2 speakersofEnglishgiventhetaskofrecalling narrativeand an expositorytext. The authorsproposethat nydifferences etween native nd non-na-tivespeakersof a language are not categoricalbut areverymuch taskdependent.Theyfurther

argue that recall tasksas employed n readingresearchand pedagogical practicesdo notnec-

essarily licitthekindofperformancefromL2

speakersthatwe have assumed. They interpretthe evidence presentedto show that speakersoftenspeak, not to remember the contents ofwhattheyhave read but to constructmeaningfrom what theyhave read. Recall tasks, then,maynotconsistentlyssessreadingcomprehen-sion butmay, nstead,enhance comprehensionitself,the very process theyare designed toassess.

In the followingpaper based on analysisofthe portfoliosof classroomlearners ofFrench,Donato and McCormick argue that learning

strategiesan neitherbe

directly aughtnorare

they function fcognitive tyle r learnerper-sonality, ut arise as a by-product fthemedia-tionalprocessesatwork n theforeignanguageclassroom culture. Significantly, heycontendthat earningstrategies re closely inked to theformation f clear and specific goals for earn-

ing.To understand hesignificance fthisfind-

ing,theauthorssituatetheir nalysiswithin he

important sociocultural notion of ActivityTheory.

The next two papers explore the effects f

mediation on L2 learningas it is jointlycon-structed in the zone ofproximaldevelopment(ZPD)-an interpersonalconfigurationwhichbrings nto contact the individual'spast learn-ingand future evelopment.Aljaafreh nd Lan-

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420 TheModern anguage ournal 8 1994)

tolfpresentevidence fromadult ESL learnersthatshows how correctivefeedback,as negoti-ated between expert and novice in the ZPD,leads toL2 learning.The authorsmaintain thatforcorrectivefeedbackto be effectivet mustbe sensitive othe ndividual earner's ZPD. Fur-thermore, heypropose thatL2 development snotmanifested olely n the learner'sability o

produce the correctL2 patterns, ut also in the

frequencynd quality fhelpco-constructed ytheexpertand thenovice.

From a slightlyifferenterspective, e Guer-reroand Villamil, n an extensive tudy f adultESL writers,xamine the effects fpeer media-tion in the ZPD on the revisionprocess. Al-

though theirfindingssupport the general as-

sumption thatcollaborative revisionbetweenpeers is a positivemovethatshouldbe fosteredinL2 writing, hey aution that symmetricaln-teractions,n whichone of the membersof a

givendyad s able tocontrol heperformance fthe othermember,maybe more conducive to

learning hansymmetricalnteractions,nwhichboth members fa dyadcompetefor control.

Platt and Brooks, in the final paper, under-take a reinterpretationfsuch pivotalterms s

acquisitionich nvironmentsnd comprehensiblen-

put. Based on their analysis of interactions

amonglearners n a vocational ESL classaswell

as in a Swahilias a foreign anguage class,theysuggest hatmuch of what s relevant othe an-

guage learning process is often overlooked intraditional cquisitionstudies nformedbythe

assumptionsof

informationrocessingheory,e-

cause such studiesfail to take full account ofwhat learners are actually ttempting o do as

theyco-constructtheirown learning environ-ments.

The contributors o this special issue sharethe hope that the papers included here willserve as a stimulusforcontinued researchonthe mplications fsocioculturaltheory or ec-ond language learning.We are aware that thekind of researchpresented n this ssue does notreflect heprevailing iewwithin urfield.Nev-

ertheless, s it isbecoming increasingly lear inthe education and developmental literatures,we are convincedthat this ine of research has

significantpotential for exploring aspects ofthe second language learning process thatwould otherwise remain hidden. It is in this

spirit hattheparticipatinguthors nd I wouldlike to expressour sinceregratitude o the edi-torof TheModern anguage ournal,allySieloff

Magnan, as well as to the ournal's editorialboard and totheanonymousreviewers or ll oftheir efforts nd support in encouraging the

continuationofour enterprise.

Forthcoming n The ModernLanguageJournal

Lee Wilberschiedand Jean-LouisP. Dassier. "Increasingthe Number of MinorityFL Educators:

Local Action to Meet a National Imperative"Razika Sanaoui. "AdultLearners'Approaches toLearningVocabulary n Second Languages"

Akiko Okamura. "Teachers' and Nonteachers' Perception of Elementary Learners' SpokenJapanese"

AnitaVogely. PerceivedStrategyUse DuringPerformance n Three Authentic isteningCompre-hensionTasks"

JuliaE.B. Hanley,CarolA. Herron,and StevenP. Cole. "UsingVideo as an AdvanceOrganizerto aWritten assage in theFLES Classroom"

Madeline E. Ehrman and Rebecca L. Oxford. "Cognition Plus: Correlates of Language LearningSuccess"

PeterD. MacIntyre. How Does AnxietyAffect econd Language Learning?A Replyto SparksandGanschow" (response article)

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