In this accessible introduction to Vygotskyian sociocultural theory, narratives illuminate key concepts of the theory. These key concepts, addressed across seven chapters, include mediation; Zone of Proximal Development; collaborative dialogue; private speech; everyday and scientific concepts; the interrelatedness of cognition and emotion, activity theory and assessment. An eighth chapter provides readers with an opportunity to consider two additional narratives and apply the SCT concepts that they have become familiar with. These narratives come from individuals in a variety of languages, contexts, ages and proficiencies. We hear from learners, teachers and researchers. Intended for graduate and undergraduate audiences, this textbook includes controversies in the field, questions for collaborative discussion and provides references to important work in the literature of second language teaching, learning and research.
In this accessible introduction to Vygotskyian sociocultural theory, narratives illuminate key concepts of the theory. These key concepts, addressed across seven chapters, include mediation; Zone of Proximal Development; collaborative dialogue; private speech; everyday and scientific concepts; the interrelatedness of cognition and emotion, activity theory and assessment. An eighth chapter provides readers with an opportunity to consider two additional narratives and apply the SCT concepts that they have become familiar with. These narratives come from individuals in a variety of languages, contexts, ages and proficiencies. We hear from learners, teachers and researchers. Intended for graduate and undergraduate audiences, this textbook includes controversies in the field, questions for collaborative discussion and provides references to important work in the literature of second language teaching, learning and research.
Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives
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Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives
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Overview
In this accessible introduction to Vygotskyian sociocultural theory, narratives illuminate key concepts of the theory. These key concepts, addressed across seven chapters, include mediation; Zone of Proximal Development; collaborative dialogue; private speech; everyday and scientific concepts; the interrelatedness of cognition and emotion, activity theory and assessment. An eighth chapter provides readers with an opportunity to consider two additional narratives and apply the SCT concepts that they have become familiar with. These narratives come from individuals in a variety of languages, contexts, ages and proficiencies. We hear from learners, teachers and researchers. Intended for graduate and undergraduate audiences, this textbook includes controversies in the field, questions for collaborative discussion and provides references to important work in the literature of second language teaching, learning and research.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781847693297 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Multilingual Matters Ltd. |
| Publication date: | 12/15/2010 |
| Series: | MM Textbooks Series , #7 |
| Edition description: | Older Edition |
| Pages: | 192 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.80(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
The authors, each from a different background, share a passion for sociocultural theory. Each author brings stories, data and experiences from her area of expertise: second language pedagogy and teacher development (Linda); elementary classroom teaching with second language and bilingual students (Penny) and teaching and research in bilingual education and second language learning (Merrill).
Merrill Swain is Professor in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.
Penny Kinnear is Lecturer and Communication Coordinator for English Language Learning at the University of Toronto.
Linda C Steinman is Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at York University in Toronto.
Read an Excerpt
Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education
An Introduction Through Narratives
By Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear, Linda Steinman
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2011 Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear and Linda SteinmanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84769-472-0
CHAPTER 1
Mona: Across time and geography
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
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 'personsoperating-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
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. 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 difficult to know where to start as it is difficult 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 classmates made good fortune at that time but I was poor. And I tried to change but whenever a big company or some institution wanted me, I didn't go. I just found I loved teaching. So I was the last one of my friends who stuck to being a teacher. It was a critical moment. I was frustrated. I was not clear what I wanted. Because the whole world around me changed, I doubted about the value of life – it kind of became meaningless.
Finally I found a solution – an answer for myself. I would stick with myself and just ignore the rest. In Chinese we say "unchange to face the change". I don't know how to put it in English? [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] You must keep yourself. You let the environment around you change. You keep yourself.
* * *
A problem was my English always had grammar mistakes and I didn't take it seriously until one class that I will tell you about later. The way you learn a language is very much influenced by your teacher. Probably I also affected my former students, I didn't know that. When I took my TESOL program – I took that in the U.S. – most of the professors were more interested in your content. So for international students at the very beginning, it was very positive. The teachers didn't correct me all the time, they just paid attention to my thoughts.
I wrote a paper and the first paper I remember the teacher said "you need to polish your grammar", and though he gave me a good mark, I argued with him about the grade. I was bold. I think people without knowledge are more brave. Another reason was I didn't know how to use a computer at that time – automatic spellcheck and things like that – but I began to realize 'okay you have a problem with grammar'. The professors were interested in the content and just mentioned the grammar. The weakness of that teaching strategy was that students didn't take it [grammar] seriously. That's not good. The teachers should have been tougher because you need to use the language in real life. Not everybody is like a babysitter, like the teacher.
* * *
After doing my MA in the US, I moved to Canada to do my PhD. The first short assignment I had as a PhD student was a critical review, and I did very well, so I thought I could behave my way with English. But in the final paper – I thought it was good – the professor didn't like how I wrote. So I felt very disappointed about that, especially because I knew that my writing at that time, compared to other Chinese students in the same program, was not that poor. I just submitted the original work, my work, without editing, without polishing. But some peoples' content was poor, I thought. I mean it was poor for the thinking and content but they had perfect English because they paid for editing. That was a bad experience but I learned a lesson. It was good though, because psychologically I survived. And I became very cautious for the comprehensive examination, of course. I found a native speaker to keep guard for my grammar. Since then I pay more attention to my writing. I think the professors in my PhD program, they train students in a different way than in my MA program. But I appreciate the professors in our PhD program. In this profession, you need to have the skills. They have to prepare you, equip you. In Chinese, we say we give you tough lessons in order to protect you in the future.
I remember when I submitted my final draft of my thesis to my supervisor, the whole stack to him, and later I asked him "what do you think about it?" He told me it was excellent, and also he said "Your English improved so much".
I still don't think grammar is the most important thing. My grammar even now is not good. But I realize that grammar is important and also if we can do things better, why not? If you set up a room and decorate it with detail, which will make people feel comfortable, and organize it well, then it's much much better than in a mess. But it depends at which stage [of learning] you're at. Now my goals are to improve writing and speaking. I've learned in this interview that I wish to express a more authentic self in the second language.
* * *
Mediational means in Mona's English learning
According to Vygotsky (1978), all forms of higher (human) mental (cognitive and emotional) activity – and that includes learning English – are mediated by culturally constructed material and/or symbolic means. What mediated Mona's learning of English? Some of the most obvious culturally constructed mediational means that Mona made use of were grammar books; computers; English language lessons played on the radio and TV in China; tapes; her first language; and her social interactions (e.g. with her father in China, her professors in the US and Canada, and highly proficient users of English (paid and unpaid)). As we will see, each of the mediational means used by Mona helped her, in varying degrees and ways, to learn English. Mona's learning was affected by the nature of the available artifacts and her changing (dynamic) goals for learning English.
In the first section below, we focus on the grammar book Mona used to mediate her learning of English. In the second section, we consider how her father mediated Mona's use of the grammar book as a mediational means. And finally, in the third section, we show how important other individuals were as they mediated Mona's English learning, and her sense of self – her identity, which also mediated her behavior. The changes that took place related to Mona's own changing goals.
Mona and the English grammar book
The grammar book used by Mona's father to teach Mona English gives us a relatively easy entry into understanding some of the complexities of the concept of mediation. Mona's short-term goal at that time (1980) was to know enough English to be able to pass an English-speaking test, be interviewed in English and do a demonstration English lesson, all as part of the process of being hired to teach English in a local college in China. She felt that she needed to improve her English grammar in order to prepare for the teaching demonstration. However, her heart was not really into learning grammar. As she acknowledged, her long-term goal was to learn English because she was 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.'
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education by Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear, Linda Steinman. Copyright © 2011 Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear and Linda Steinman. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
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Table of Contents
Introduction1. Mona: Across Time and Geography Mediation2. Madame Tremblay: A French Immersion Story The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)3. Narrative 1: Jody (Talking to Self) Narrative 2: Sophie & Rachel (Talking to Others and Self) Languaging: Private Speech and Collaborative Dialogue4. Thaya: Writing Across Languages Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts5. Grace: The Effect of Affect Interrelatedness of Cognition and Emotion6. Sandra’s Story: A Teacher’s Dilemma Activity Theory7. Yang: “Being Assessed” Testing from a Sociocultural Perspective8. Maria and the Beatles; Jean-Paul and Second Life The Floor is Yours