Sociocultural+Theory+and+Language+Development

=Sociocultural Theory and language development (Lantolf)= =Languaging (Swain)= The sociocultural theory on language development is based on the works of Lev Vygotsky. Sociocultural theory states that language is learned from social and cultural interaction, not just through communicative interactions (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Research studies on second language acquisition that focuses on sociocultural theories reflect on a sociocultural perspective. This perspective focuses in depth on sociocultural and contextual factors, the importance of individual agency, and the multiple identities that are involved in the process of learning and using a second language (Dantas-Whitney, Clemente & Higgins, 2012).

Vygotsky believed that teachers need to understand the historical and cultural contexts of students’ background to be able to understand how their students’ minds have developed. He also believed that language plays an important role in human development and that we internalize language that we learn from our social context. Language then becomes our basis for our mental tool kit (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Since language is an important tool for learning, teachers who use peer communication as a technique to enrich their students’ exposure to language provide more opportunities for students to engage and enjoy English. Some of the methods teachers can use in their classrooms are mixing more proficient English students with less proficient English students, incorporating readers’ theater with other students in the classroom, setting up class discussion in an information-rich environment, and placing equal value on the primary language of all students so that there is no feelings of unfair privileges towards native-English speakers (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010).

Under the umbrella of sociocultural theory exists another element, languaging. According to Merrill Swain and Ping Deters, languaging is the theory that by using language (speaking and writing), individuals cam “mediate cognitively complex activities” (Swain & Deters, 2007, p. 822). Put another way, speaking and writing a language can be used as a tool to help the individual’s thinking develop. Some people may identify themselves as “verbal processors,” meaning they discover things as they talk, but the languaging theory argues that everyone is a “verbal processor.”

Languaging contrasts with former ideas that all cognitive processes happen inside the brain and are then transmitted through language. These traditional second language acquisition theories, then, see communication and interaction through language as the result of cognitive processes, not the source. However, languaging posits that speaking and writing is the actual process through which growth occurs; it is “thinking in progress” (Swain and Deters, 2007, p. 822). The result of languaging, the actual words produced, are considered as artifactual evidence and can be used to reflect and develop further. Maria Dantas-Whitney, Angeles Clemente, and Michael Higgens (2012) quote Lantolf when describing languaging as a way to “gain control over our memory, attention, planning, perception, learning, and development” language (p. 115). By speaking and writing, a person becomes an active participant in the learning process.

To utilize languaging in a classroom, a teacher should make sure that the curriculum includes opportunities for group work (preferably on a daily basis). It would be best if students work with a variety of partners so they will have increased chances to learn through talking with different types of students. Also, teachers could have project based learning that would allow students to not just regurgitate information but create their own project and thus be stretched to use languaging to communicate even more.

References Dantas-Whitney, M., Clemente, A., & Higgins, M. (2012). Agency, identity and imagination at a primary school in southern Mexico. //Caledoscopio, 10//(1), 114-124. Díaz-Rico, L. T. & Weed, K. Z. (2010). //The cross-cultural, language, and academic// // development handbook, fourth edition. // Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Swain, M., & Deters, P. (2007). “New” mainstream SLA theory: Expanded and enriched. //Modern Language Journal//, //91//(5), 820–836.