See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/342196944

Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition

Article · June 2020

DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1272.pub2

CITATIONS READS
3 17,466

2 authors:

Holbrook Mahn Hafiz Fazalehaq

University of New Mexico University of New Mexico
40 PUBLICATIONS   1,120 CITATIONS    8 PUBLICATIONS   13 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Tutorías y mediación hipermedia View project

The Essence of Vygotsky's Work Revealed in his Analysis of Unit(ies) View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Hafiz Fazalehaq on 10 July 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 1

Vygotsky and Second Language

Acquisition
HOLBROOK MAHN AND HAFIZ MUHAMMAD FAZELEHAQ

The far-reaching influence that the Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934)
has had on second language acquisition (SLA) research is reflected in studies which
emphasize the important role played by semiotic mediation in social interaction within
social, cultural, physical, and historical contexts. While Vygotsky did not write extensively
about second language acquisition per se, he did provide a foundation for second language
acquisition research through his analysis of the development of human mental systems
created through the development of the ability to communicate through language. His
study of the interrelationship between and unification of thinking processes—those involved
in perceiving, processing, organizing, and storing information from the environment and
using it to guide action—and languaging processes—those involved in using symbolic repre-
sentation to create and communicate meaning in social interaction—provides a foundation
for understanding the thinking and languaging processes involved in communicating
meaning in a second language.
Vygotsky used the concept of rechevóye myshlénie (speaking/languaging thinking) to
describe the system created through the unification of thinking and speaking/languaging
processes as well as to study the development of the human psyche through analysis of
k higher psychical processes such as logical memory, voluntary attention, and verbal percep- k
tion in relationship to language use and development. Analyzing mental systems to reveal
the origins and development of human consciousness was the central focus for Vygotsky’s
decade-long research. He conceived of consciousness as a system of systems and began
his investigation of consciousness by analyzing the entity created through the unification
of thinking and languaging processes. In spite of its centrality, this concept has not been
widely explored in second language research informed by sociocultural theory, nor in
sociocultural studies in general. This entry describes Vygotsky’s analysis of the system that
results from and that in turn develops language use, and then describes how this analysis
illuminates the processes involved in second language acquisition and development.
The internal thinking/languaging system with a core of meaning created through languag-
ing was the main focus of Vygotsky’s work. His analysis of the entity created by the unifica-
tion of thinking and languaging processes is presented in depth in his main work, Thinking
and Speech. There he focuses on the qualitative transformation that separated the human
species from the animal kingdom with the development of language and the “dialectical
leap” that occurs when infants begin to use symbols in meaningful communication. This
analysis provides the foundation for the concept for which he is best known, the zone of
proximal development. However, it is often isolated from this foundation and applied with-
out consideration of how it fits into his theoretical framework and his analysis of the think-
ing/languaging system. This analysis also provides the foundation for other well-known

Reproduced with minor modifications from H. Mahn (2012). Vygotsky and second language acqui-
sition. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. John Wiley & Sons Inc., with
permission.

The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Edited by Carol A. Chapelle.

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 2

2 VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

aspects of his work, such as the role of semiotic mediation in human activity in physical
and social worlds; the importance of play in the development of human cognitive abilities;
inner and private speech as means of regulation of activity and thought; and the need to
consider social/cultural/historical factors when looking at the development of the human
brain/mind.

Meaning in the Internal Thinking/Languaging System

A fundamental concept for sociocultural studies is the role signs/symbols play in the medi-
ation of human activity. “Vygotsky’s fundamental theoretical insight is that the higher 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 reiterated that the
focus of their work was not mediation in and of itself but rather the internal system created
through mediated social interaction. He acknowledged their focus on sign and sign opera-
tions in earlier investigations, but added, “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
that linguistic and psychological theories of his time took the development of meaning for
granted, viewing meaning as stable and unchanging. In those 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. Vygotsky clar-
ified his conception of meaning:
k k
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. Mean-
ing is not equal to the word, not equal to the thought. (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 relationship with other psycholog-
ical functions, processes, structures, and systems. The thinking/languaging system is
part of larger systems—the human psyche and human consciousness—and therefore,
“The structure of meaning is determined by the systemic structure of consciousness”
(1997a, p. 137). Unlike other psychologists of his time who examined mental entities
by isolating them in their external manifestations or by conceptualizing them separate
from other mental entities, Vygotsky analyzed “the systemic relationships and connec-
tions 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 created through language use as a psycho-
logical system, Vygotsky recognized other systems based on mathematics, music, art,
aesthetic response, and volition and affect, among others, but his main focus was on
the system that results from the unification of languaging and thinking processes—the
thinking/languaging system. In describing this system, rather than focusing on secondary
sources, this entry draws on Vygotsky’s writings, particularly those that 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 devel-
opment of a system of concepts; and his analysis of times of qualitative transformation in a

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 3

VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 3

child’s development, including the development of higher psychical processes, periods of

crisis, and the development of conceptual thinking.
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 transforma-
tions leading to different stages of development:

Such functions as voluntary attention, logical memory, higher forms of percep-

tion 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 languaging and thinking processes, with
each process shaping and being shaped by the other in an internal psychical system that
resulted from their unification. Vygotsky (1987) devoted most of his final work, Thinking
and Speech, to describing investigations into the origins and nature of this unification and the
creation of a new entity—rechevóye myshlénie, the thinking/languaging system. His analysis
of its origins and course of development with times of qualitative transformation was central
to his investigations of the processes through which both the human species and individuals
create internal mental systems as they develop the ability to receive and produce signs to
communicate meaning. 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
k change during which fundamental, essential transformations in rechevóye myshlénie and its k
relationship to other mental functions occur. The stage that individuals have reached in
the development of their thinking/languaging system will influence their second language
acquisition and development.

Methodological Approach

The methodological approach Vygotsky developed to study the relationships between

thinking and languaging processes can also help inform investigations into the processes
involved in acquiring and developing communicative capacity in a second language. (See
Mahn, 2010 for further discussion on Vygotsky’s methodological approach.) To find the
essence of the unification of thinking and languaging processes, Vygotsky sought an aspect
of this unification that was primary, basic, irreducible, essential, and yet still maintained
the essence of the whole—rechevóye myshlénie. “What then is a unit that possesses the
characteristics inherent to the integral phenomenon rechevóye myshlénie 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 examined the social origins of the ability of both the human species and the indi-
vidual 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.
Because of the way znachenie slova has been translated into English, Vygotsky’s investi-
gation of it is often not addressed in interpretations of his work. The Russian znachenie
translates as “meaning” and slova as “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

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 4

4 VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

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; this causes the role of thinking processes to be over-
looked. Consequently, the concepts of rechevóye myshlénie and znachenie slova that Vygotsky
held central to his theoretical framework, and that provided a focus for his research, have
been neglected.
In Thinking and Speech Vygotsky analyzes znachenie slova from three perspectives:
genetically—its origins; structurally—the development of and interconnection to psycho-
logical functions and processes related to it; and functionally—its psychological activity
and motivating factors. Through this analysis, Vygotsky is able to “disclose the internal
essence that lies 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 “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” (1997b, p. 257).
Vygotsky examined the origins of znachenie slova in an individual as a process that has
its 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, and so forth. 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. An infant’s developing perception, attention, and memory
lead to communication between the child and caretakers, with the latter ascribing com-
k municative intent to the infant’s gestures and sounds. Through this early social interac- k
tion children develop communicative intentionality and the initial use of symbols to con-
vey meaning—key elements in the acquisition of language. A qualitative transformation in
social interaction takes place as communication of meaning is accomplished through signs
and the development of language use, and through the ability to generalize in “the creation
and the use of signs” (Vygotsky, 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; gen-
eralization becomes possible only with the development of social interaction.
(Vygotsky, 1987, p. 48)

Two basic functions of speech—reflection of reality in a generalized way and com-

municative social interaction—are important components of the thinking/languaging
system and its core, znachenie slova. 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
thinking/languaging system. In Thinking and Speech, Vygotsky (1987) describes the devel-
opment of this structure of generalization as the child acquires language, focusing on 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 emphasizes the processes necessary to acquire these modes
of thinking—voluntary attention, partitioning, comparison, analysis, abstraction, and

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 5

VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 5

synthesis—essential for the development of rechevóye myshlénie and the structure of

generalization.
In his analysis of the development of conceptual thinking, Vygotsky focuses on the origins
and development of the pseudoconcept, which occurs when a child and an adult both focus
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 thinking/languaging
system:

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 claims that children develop their own sense of a word as it is internalized, with
sense both developing and being developed by the thinking/languaging system. Sense
(smysl) is an important component in the thinking/languaging system 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). Vygotsky describes the
process of social interaction through which meaning is internalized into an individual’s
sense with “the meaning of the word in inner speech as an individual meaning, a meaning
k understandable only in the plane of inner speech” (p. 279). There are always going to be k
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 thinking/languaging
system. Vygotsky explains that, “to some extent, [sense] is unique for each consciousness
and for a single consciousness in varied circumstances” (p. 276). The sense of a word is
never complete, but evolves with the thinking/languaging system 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. 275–6)
is a key component in the thinking/languaging system. “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).
Connected to an individual’s thinking/languaging system is an individual’s system of
concepts. The generalization and abstraction needed to acquire conceptual thinking can only
be accomplished through the process of developing a system of concepts, concepts that are
introduced externally, primarily through school; concepts that are organized into systems
and interconnected with multiple other systems—what Vygotsky refers to as scientific
concepts. These concepts are internalized in a system of concepts, which becomes similar
to the thinking/languaging system during this transition from complexive to conceptual
thinking. “Psychologically, the development of concepts and the development of znachenie
slova are one and the same process” (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 (Mahn, 2015). The recognition
that an adult learner has developed a thinking/languaging system in their native language
as described above by Vygotsky is an important initial step when working with adults
learning a second language.

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 6

6 VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition and Development

Vygotsky argues 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). Studies of second language learners take “into account the
whole aggregate of social factors of the child’s intellectual development” and use the genetic
method to both trace this development “with all of its multifaceted qualities” (p. 257) as well
as 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 impor-
tant, 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 does 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, what he
called scientific concepts, as both are marked by a level of conscious awareness not present in
learning one’s native language or acquiring everyday, spontaneous concepts. “The devel-
opment 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. “Scientific concepts restructure and
raise spontaneous concepts to a higher level, forming their zone of proximal development”
(p. 220). Vygotsky compares the relationship between the paths of development of concepts
k in systems (scientific) and spontaneous concepts with the relationship that exists between k
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. (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 argues that both processes involve a level
of conscious awareness that is not present when children learn their native language. When
they enter school, 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, an
ability 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 outlines 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 meaning in the native lan-
guage when he begins to learn a foreign language. This system of meanings is transferred to
the foreign language” (1987, p. 221). He acknowledges that children who acquire two lan-
guages from infancy develop two relatively distinct thinking/languaging systems through

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 7

VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 7

each language. Citing a study by Ronget, he states, “The result of the experiment showed
that the child acquired both languages in parallel and almost completely independently of
each other” (1997b, p. 255).
Vygotsky’s writings on the development of the thinking/languaging system, and the con-
comitant formation of concepts, are useful in looking at second language learners. In ana-
lyzing both, he examines ways in which changes in internal relationships between mental
processes also affect children’s experiences of their sociocultural environment and the mean-
ing that they make of these experiences. Vygotsky calls this experience of meaning “one of
the most complex problems of contemporary psychology and psychopathology of the per-
sonality” (1998, p. 290). Understanding the nature of the structure of generalization is key
to the development of meaning. “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” (1987, p. 226). Understanding where children are in their concept development can
help in understanding their processes 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
stressed the importance of studying the interconnectedness of the processes of second lan-
guage 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 develop-
k ment of the human psyche. Although he did not write about second language acquisition k
extensively, Vygotsky did provide a theoretical framework and a methodological approach
to guide research into second language acquisition. Unfortunately, an essential aspect of
Vygotsky’s theoretical framework—the system that is created through the unification of
thinking processes and languaging processes—has often been overlooked by researchers
who rely on his work.
Mahn (2012, 2018) provides an in-depth analysis of the Vygotsky’s use of the concept
of znachenie slova to investigate the relationships between thinking and language use in
the development of human consciousness. Without exploring the essence of Vygotsky’s
work—meaning as the centerpiece of the thinking/languaging system 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 because it leads to overlook-
ing 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 cen-
ter of which are the processes and interactions through which language is developed 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.
Understanding Vygotsky’s central concepts is essential if his theoretical framework is used
to guide investigations of second language acquisition, and can best be achieved by read-
ing his major work Thinking and Speech in its most complete form (1987) (translation issues
notwithstanding) rather than abridgements of that work (1962, 1986). His work is com-
plex and challenging, but his theoretical framework and the methodological approach that

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 8

8 VYGOTSKY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

constructs it can make a significant contribution to the analysis of language development

and its role in the development of the human mind/psyche.

wbeal0664.pub2 SEE ALSO: Languaging: Collaborative Dialogue as a Source of Second Language Learning;
wbeal1006.pub2 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), 418–20.
Mahn, H. (2010). Vygotsky’s methodological approach: 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. (2012). Vygotsky’s analysis of children’s meaning making processes. International Jour-
nal of Educational Psychology, 1(2), 100–26. doi: 10.4471/ijep.2012.07 [peer review]
Mahn, H. (2015). Classroom discourse and interaction in the zone of proximal development. The
handbook of classroom discourse and interaction (pp. 250–64). Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mahn, H. (2018). Essential aspects of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework and methodological
approach revealed in his analysis of unit(ie)s. In J. P. Lantolf, M. Poehner, & M. Swain (Eds.),
The Routledge handbook of sociocultural theory and second language development (pp. 56–74). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
k Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. k
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology.
Including the volume Thinking and Speech. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997a). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 3: Problems of the theory and history
of psychology. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1997b). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 4: The history of the development of
higher mental functions. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 5: Child psychology. New York, NY:
Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1999). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 6: Scientific legacy. New York, NY:
Plenum Press.

Suggested Readings
Vygotsky, L. S. (1993). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 2: The fundamentals of defectology
(Abnormal psychology and learning disabilities). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1994). The Vygotsky reader (R. van der Veer & J. Valsiner, Eds.). Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell.

k
 k Carol A. Chapelle wbeal1272.pub2.tex V1 - 05/25/2019 9:50 P.M. Page 9

The abstract and keywords will not be included in the PDF or any printed version of
your article, but are necessary for publication on Wiley’s online publishing platform to
increase the discoverability of your article.
If the abstract and keywords are not present below, please take this opportunity to add
them now.
The abstract should be a short paragraph up to 200 words in length and keywords
between 5 to 10 words.

Abstract: The work of Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934) on the development of language in

young children provides a foundation for studying second language development. His main
focus was on meaning as the core of the system that children develop in acquiring lan-
guage, what is referred to in this entry as a thinking/languaging system. This important
aspect of his work remains underappreciated because of political ideology and translation
issues, but this entry describes in detail his analysis of the thinking/languaging system. The
methodological approach Vygotsky developed to study the relationships between thinking
and languaging processes in the formation of this system can help inform investigations
into the processes involved in acquiring and developing communicative capacity in a sec-
ond language. The entry concludes by examining Vygotsky’s writings on second language
acquisition, which, while not extensive, help in understanding both first and second lan-
guage development.
k k

Keywords: Bilingualism; ESL/EFL; First Language Acquisition; Second Language

Acquisition; Vygotsky

k
View publication stats