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LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Editorial RESEARCH
Lawrence Williams
University of North Texas, USA
I Introduction
Vygotskian sociocultural theory of mind (SCT) has attracted the attention of second
language (L2) researchers and educators since the publication of the papers of Frawley
and Lantolf (Frawley & Lantolf, 1985; Lantolf & Frawley, 1984). Since that time,
SCT-informed research has become an established part of the landscape of L2 acqui-
sition (SLA), pedagogy, and assessment (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), as evidenced by
the growing number of journal articles and book chapters, dissertations, edited vol-
umes, and books focused on SCT, as well as the presence of SCT in handbooks and
other reference texts centered on theories of SLA (see Center for Language Acquisition,
2012). The majority of this research has, however, used SCT as a theoretical lens
through which to interpret questions related to SLA rather than as a theoretical moti-
vation for designing L2 pedagogies. In fact, as pointed out by Lantolf (2008), it was
not until Negueruela’s (2003) doctoral research that Vygotsky’s proposals were sys-
tematically incorporated into a coherent L2 pedagogical program. Since then, a num-
ber of studies (including several doctoral theses) have been conducted to explore the
impact of SCT-informed pedagogies on adult SLA (e.g. papers in Lantolf & Poehner,
2008). This research has included, centrally, work on dynamic assessment and con-
cept-based instruction, but also perspectives on other forms of social, or human,
mediation intentionally introduced into L2 educational contexts in order to promote
development.
The importance of pedagogical activity for SCT cannot be understated. Indeed, one
has to acknowledge that Vygotsky did not conceive of pedagogies derived from his pro-
posals to be mere applications of the theory; that is, the application of theoretically
informed teaching ‘techniques’. Instead, pedagogical intervention was itself part and
parcel of further developing the theory and of continuing to understand not only the
nature of human cognition but, crucially, the processes by which the mind develops (e.g.
Vygotsky, 1997). This is what Vygotsky referred to as ‘praxis’; the unification of theory
and practical activity. As Lantolf and Poehner (2011) explain:
Vygotsky’s scientific enterprise was concerned with much more than a description of human
psychology because the kind of understanding he sought was one that illuminated the processes
of the mind’s development, specifically the social and cultural means through which individuals
come to master thought. For Vygotsky this orientation held direct and immediate implications
for intervention in development, that is, for engineering activities to support development
[italics added]. The position he argued for was the integration of theory with practice, a ‘praxis’
whereby theory provides a basis to guide practical activity, but at the same time practice informs
and shapes theory. (p. 12)
Rémi A van Compernolle and Celeste Kinginger report on a novel approach to using
appropriateness questionnaire tasks to assess L2 metapragmatic capacities while simul-
taneously promoting their development: engaging learners in cooperative interaction as
they complete the task (i.e. dynamic assessment). The study draws on data collected
during a concept-based pedagogical program in which learners of French were appropri-
ating the concepts of social distance and power hierarchies as illustrated by the second-
person pronouns tu and vous ‘you’. The authors present a case study of one learner,
Nikki, to show how support provided by the teacher/mediator around one questionnaire
item both assessed and promoted her developing conceptual knowledge about the
dynamics of interpersonal relationships and how these are indexed through language.
Kristin J Davin’s article reports on an elementary school Spanish teacher’s use of
dynamic assessment in which mediating prompts were planned in advance to address
anticipated problems with WH-question formation, and her ability to engage students
in more flexible instructional conversations to support their learning when other
issues arose in the course of classroom interaction. As Davin points out, while
dynamic assessment has an explicit evaluation goal (i.e. to assess while simultane-
ously supporting learner growth), instructional conversation is more concerned with
teaching without an assessment in mind. Her analysis reveals how these two forms of
interaction can be integrated into classroom pedagogy for different purposes and in a
complementary way.
Matthew E Poehner and James P Lantolf present the results of an initial attempt at
designing computerized dynamic assessment (C-DA) tests, focusing on reading and lis-
tening comprehension in L2 Chinese and French. The tests, which incorporate mediation
to support learners as they respond to questions, include transfer items to determine the
extent to which learner development is supported during the test. This process generates
three scores: actual score (to capture unmediated performance), mediated score (reflect-
ing responsiveness to assistance provided on each test item), and a learning potential
score (based on gain between actual and mediated performance) that indicates how much
investment in future instructional activity is likely required for development to move
forward.
Rémi A van Compernolle explores the appropriation of pragmatic concepts and the
emergence of sociostylistic variation in L2 French. The article focuses on the co-devel-
opment of conceptual knowledge and one type of sociostylistic variation in French; the
variable presence versus absence of the proclitic negative particle ne of verbal negation.
The analysis centers on learners’ orientations to scenarios to be performed as spoken-
interactive tasks, including reasons for choosing different negative structures, their use
of negative structures in actual performance, and the emergence of mediated and inde-
pendent performance abilities.
Lawrence Williams, Lee B Abraham, and Eduardo Negueruela-Azarola extend
research on concept-based instruction to the domain of teacher education. The authors
investigate the implementation of this approach to pedagogy in the foreign language
classroom from the perspectives of pre-service, novice, and experienced teachers of
French and Spanish, with specific focus on the concept of verbal aspect. The overarching
goal of the study is to understand how, why, and to what extent teachers embrace or reject
a pedagogical approach that does not necessarily align with a textbook’s explanation of
grammatical features.
Acknowledgements
We believe that the articles included in this special issue constitute an important contribution to
language teaching research in general and to Vygotskian approaches to L2 pedagogy in particular,
and we would like to acknowledge the collaborative nature of the project. First and foremost, we
are of course grateful to all of the authors for their contributions, and for their dedication to this
special issue. Second, we would also like to thank the Language Teaching Research editors, Gary
Barkhuizen and Rod Ellis, for their support of the publication of this collection of articles. Last, but
certainly not least, we extend our warmest appreciation to the panel of reviewers who have helped
to strengthen this issue: Rumia Ableeva, Marta Antón, Jean-Marc Dewaele, Kate Douglass,
Kathleen Farrell Whitworth, Richard Forest, Kylie Hsu, Noriko Ishihara, Alex Kozulin, Amy
Ohta, Jonathon Reinhardt, Kelly Sax, and Robert Summers.
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