Sociocultural Theory and Mediated Learning

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Sociocultural Theory and Mediated Learning

• Dr Gabriela Meier

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Todays objectives

• Review of IIO through the article Pica 2005
• Presentations I critically engage with diverse
  language learning contexts
• Gain an elementary understanding of
  socio-cultural theory and its application to the
  field of second language learning.
• Introduction to concept maps Task for next week

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Views of learning

• Stimulus-response model (behaviourism)
• Cognitive models (innatism, constructivism,
  information processing)
• Input interaction output - Computational
  metaphor (based on cognitive psychology and
  linguistics)
• Socio-cultural model (based on social psychology)

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Discussion

• In your language learning experience
• do you ever think in the L2?
• if so, in what type of situations?
• Do you ever talk in the L2 with a fellow L2
  learner?
• Do you feel it helps you in mastering the L2?
• Why? Why not?

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Overview of the session

• 1. Vygotskian socio-cultural theory key
  principles.
• Language in SCT
• Mediation
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• Regulation
• Scaffolding
• Learning metaphors
• 2. Reflecting on your own learning.

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SCT

• Draws on
• Lev Vygotsky (1987)
• Alexei Nikolaevich Leontev (1978)
• James V. Wertsch (1985)
• Etc.

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Lev Vygotsky (1896 1934)

• Social psychologist
• He was a contemporary of Jean Piaget. His work,
  which was not translated into English until 1962,
  is mainly concerned with general ideas about
  learning (not with language specifically).

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Literary Works

• Thought and Language
• Thinking and Speech
• Crisis in Psychology
• Mind and Society
• Collected Works 6 volumes

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Language in SCT

• Vygotsky was concerned with the relationship
  between thought and language.
• He saw language as the means for mediating higher
  level thinking skills.
• Emphasis on semantic properties of language
  rather than its formal properties.
• Emphasis on meaning rather than form.

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Jean Piaget (1896 1980)

• Developmental psychologist
• Stages of development
• 0-2 years sensorimotor
• 2-7 years preoperational
• 7-11 years concrete operational
• 11-16 years formal operational

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Vygotsky and Piaget

• Who stands for which model?
• Learning leads development
• versus
• Development leads learning

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Vygotsky

• Best known for his work on
• Learning as a social interaction
• An infant establishes meaning
• in the interaction with care givers (intermental)
  
• and then internalises it (intramental).

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The social origin of mental functioning

• Any function in the childs cultural development
• appears twice, or on two planes. First it
  appears on
• the social plane, and then on the psychological
• plane. First it appears between people as an
• interpsychological category, and then within the
  
• child as an intrapsycholgical category.
• (Vygotsky, 197857)

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Important SCT concepts

• Mediation
• ZPD
• Regulation
• Scaffolding

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• Mediation

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The mediated mind
The role of artifacts (tools and activities) and
other people in learning.
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The importance of tools

• Humans use tools to understand and mediate their
  social and physical environments
• Tools are socially generated and transmitted
  within cultures through joint activity

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Mediated action
M Artefact
O Object
S Subject
Subject and object are seen not only as
directly connected but simultaneously as
indirectly connected through a medium
constituted of artefacts. (Cole 2003119)
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Mediated action
Fishing rod
FISH (Supper!)
Fisherman
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• What is an artefact (artifact)?
• How does this relate to language learning?

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Mediated action and SLA
M (artefact) Concrete dictionary Symbolic
language Social significant other
O Understanding a text
SL2 Learner
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• Zone of Proximal Development

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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• (the zone of potential/ next development)
• the distance between the actual developmental
  level as determined by independent problem
  solving and the level of potential development
  as determined through problem solving under
  adult guidance or in collaboration with more
  capable peers.
• (Vygotsky, 1978 86).

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ZPDZone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
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• Regulation

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The importance of other people

• REGULATION AND ASSISTED PERFORMANCE.
• Object-regulation (have no control over
  objects)
• Other-regulation (gain control with
  assistance of
• 
  socioculturally-organized concepts,
  artefacts and activities)
• Self-regulation (gain control through
  inner speech)

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From other to self regulation in ZPD
                                   

• transition from
• other-regulation activity (inter-mental)
• self-regulation activity (intra-mental)
• learner gains increasing control over
• learning behaviours and the environment
• (Lantolf Appel, 1994).

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• Scaffolding

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Scaffolding

• Vygotsky believed that when a student is at the
  zone of proximal development for a particular
  task, providing the appropriate assistance
  (scaffolding) will give the learner the extra
  help to achieve the task. Once the student, with
  the benefit of scaffolding, masters the task,
  the scaffolding can then be removed and the
  student will then be able to complete the task
  again on his own. (from other to self regulation)
  
• Theory developed by Jerôme Bruner in 1950s

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Jerôme Bruner 1915 Poland

• Cognitive psychologist / Professor at Harvard
• Instruction must be concerned with the
  experiences and contexts that make the student
  willing and able to learn (readiness).
• Instruction should be designed to facilitate
  extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going
  beyond the information given).

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Scaffolding (Bruner)
Scaffolding is a form of adult assistance
that enables a child or novice to solve a
problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which
would be beyond his unassisted efforts. It
is a process whereby the adult controls those
elements of the task that are initially beyond
the learners capacity, thus allowing the learner
to complete those that are within existing
capabilities. (Lantolf Thorne, 2006 107).
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Instructional scaffolding

• Instructional scaffolding is the provision of
  sufficient support to promote learning when
  concepts and skills are being first introduced to
  students.

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Scaffolding

• What scaffolding do you provide for your
  learners?
• And how do they move from other regulation to
  self regulation?

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Learning metaphors

• Acquisition metaphor
• Participation metaphor
• Contribution metaphor

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Learning metaphors

• Acquisition metaphor
• knowledge as a commodity that is accumulated by
  the learner (Pavlenko and Lantolf 20001556)
• Participation metaphor
• obliges us to think of learning as aprocess of
  becoming members of a certain community (Sfard
  19986)
• Contribution metaphor
• understands the language learner as a potential
  contributor to common goals. (Grabois 2008285)

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Sociocultural theory and classroom practice

• Sociocultural theory highlights the importance of
  people, activities and tools in supporting
  learning and development. It suggests that
  classroom activities and practices need to be
  designed to enable learners to work within their
  ZPD.

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The problem with operationalizing the concept of
the ZPD in our classrooms.

• How do we establish a childs current level of
  development?
• How do we know when to increase/ reduce our level
  of assistance or support?
• How can we teach in ways that can accommodate the
  very different development needs of our learners?
• If the ZPD is ultimately best understood as an
  activity between learner and mediating artefact/
  significant other then is it possible to make any
  pedagogical generalizations at all?

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Some pedagogical insights developed from
socio-cultural theory

• Sociocultural theory stresses the important role
  that people and artefacts play in learning.
  According to SCT, learning is not an individual
  autonomous process and so the quality of the
  learning experience provided by teachers is
  significant to the learning journey of the
  learner.
• Based on SCT
• Qualities of good mediation/scaffolding.
• Dynamic assessment (within ZPD)
• Differentiated instruction (activities and tasks)

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Recap

• Whats difference between socio-cultural
  perspectives on learning and other perspectives
  (Behaviourism, Cognitive psychology?
• What are them main concepts related to
  socio-cultural theory?

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Vygotskian SCT compared

• Vygotsky and Piaget
• Learning leads development versus development
  leads learning)
• Vygotsky and Chomsky
• From inside to outside versus from outside to
  inside
• Vygotskys ZPD versus Krashens i 1
• Quality of input versus quality of dynamic
  interaction between learner and significant other
• Vygotsky and Behaviourism
• Learning from the world versus learning in the
  world.

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Some SC theorists OR Neo-Vygotskians

• In Russia by Leontev, especially interaction of
  consciousness and activity elaborated as
  version of activity theory promoted by Engeström.
  
• In USA developed in work of Bruner, Cole and
  Wertsch in developmental psychology, cultural
  anthropology and sociolinguistics. This strand is
  most commonly called sociocultural or
  cultural-historical.
• In N. America developed in relation to second
  language learning by Lantolf (1994 Lantolf and
  Appel Lantolf, 2000 Pavlenko, 2004 Swain et
  al, 2002.
• In UK delivered in relation to general classroom
  studies by Mercer (1995 2000) Wells (1999).

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SCT and its followers in SLA

• Professor James P. Lantolf
• Penn State University, USA

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SLA authors on SCT

• Lantolf Poehner 2011
• Ellis 2008
• Lantolf and Thorne 2006
• Kinginger 2002
• Nassaji and Cumming 2000
• Dunn and Lantolf 1998
• Lantolf and Aljaafreh 1995

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Question

• What comes first in the learning process
• cognition or social interaction?

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Teacher-student or student-student?

• Dialogue among learners can be as effective as
  instructional conversations between teachers and
  learners.
• Working collaboratively, people are able to
  co-construct distributed expertise as a feature
  of the group social, and individual members are
  then able to exploit this expertise as an
  occasion for learning to happen cognition. ()
• Learners are capable of scaffolding each other
  through the use of strategies that parallel those
  relied upon by experts.
• Lantolf, 2002106

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Social interaction is central

• cognition originates in social interaction and
  is shaped by cultural and sociopolitical
  processes. That is, cultural and sociopolitical
  processes are central, rather than incidental, to
  cognitive development.
• Watson-Gegeo 2004 332
• How does this relate to Picas (2005) article?

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Our teaching is based on combination

• IIO
• Student reading
• Interactive lectures
• Output presentation, essays
• Feedback
• SCT
• Dynamic assessment (formative summative)
• Social participation in class, learning as a
  social activity
• Essay based on specific context known to you
  (ZPD)

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Task concept map

• Task produce a concept map
• Please construct a concept map that reflects
  the following
• Main strands of theoretical thinking with regard
  to how people learn
• Main theories relating to first language learning
  / second language learning
• Main theorists
• Can you position your own language learning
  context in this?
• ? See hand out

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Todays objectives
Next week Learner strategies and styles

• Review of IIO through the article Pica 2005
• Presentations I critically engage with diverse
  language learning contexts
• Gain an elementary understanding of
  socio-cultural theory and its application to the
  field of second language learning.
• Introduction to concept maps Task for next week