Realizing the ZPD in Second Language Education
The Complementary Contributions of Dynamic Assessment and Mediated Development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.38916Keywords:
L2 Writing, Sociocultural Theory, Dynamic Assessment, Mediated Development, Systemic Theoretical Instruction, Zone of Proximal DevelopmentAbstract
Vygotsky’s (1978, 1987) notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) brings into focus the dialectical nature of interactional processes that provoke second language (L2) learner development. Two areas of L2 sociocultural theory (SCT-L2) scholarship that draw upon the ZPD as a framework for organizing instructional interactions are Dynamic Assessment (DA), wherein mediator-learner interaction functions to diagnose learner maturing abilities (Poehner, 2008), and Mediated Development (MD), an interactional framework that fosters learner capacity to understand and employ L2 concepts within communicative activities (Poehner and Infante, 2017). We argue that DA foregrounds assessing learner emerging abilities without losing sight of their development through instruction, while MD shows how appropriate instruction has to include assessing the learner. This paper extends the argument that ZPD activity represents the dialectical relation between teaching and assessing through analysis of transcribed classroom interaction that supports the perspective that DA and MD can function together as part of a coherent L2 SCT pedagogy.
References
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Poehner, M. E. (2016). Sociocultural Theory and the dialectical-materialist approach to L2 development. Language and Sociocultural Theory 3 (2): 133–152. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.v3i2.32869
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Poehner, M. E., and Infante, P. (2017). Mediated Development: A Vygotskian approach to transforming second language learner abilities. TESOL Quarterly 51(2), 332–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.308
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Radden, G. and Dirven, R. (2007). Cognitive English Grammar. Volume 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Sternberg, R. J. and Grigorenko, E. L. (2002). Dynamic Testing. The Nature and Measurement of Learning Potential. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Tsagari, D. and Csepes, I. (2011). Classroom Based Language Assessment (Language Testing and Evaluation). Bern: Peter Lang AG.
van Compernolle, R. A. (2012). Developing Sociopragmatic Capacity in a Second Language through Concept-Based Instruction (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
van der Veer, J. and Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis. Oxford: Blackwell.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 1, Problems of General Psychology, Including the Volume Thinking and Speech. R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton (Eds). New York: Plenum. https://doi.org/10.1086/356870
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 5, Child Psychology. R. W. Rieber (Ed.). New York, Plenum.
Brown, A. and Ferrara, R. A. (1985). Diagnosing zones of proximal development. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), Culture, Communication and Cognition. Vygotskian Perspectives, 273–305. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263100007889
Budoff, M. and Friedman, M. (1964). ‘Learning potential’ as an assessment approach to the adolescent mentally retarded. Journal of Consulting Psychology 28: 434–439. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040631
Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587964
Chaiklin, S. (2003). The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V. S. Ageyev, and S. M. Miller (Eds), Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context, 39–64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511840975.004
Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Erlam, R., Ellis, R. and Batstone, R. (2013). Oral corrective feedback on L2 writing: Two approaches compared. System 41: 557–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.03.004
Fauconnier, G. (1999). Mental spaces, language modalities, and conceptual integration. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The New Psychology of Language, 258–280. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Feuerstein, R., Feuerstein, R. S. and Falik, L. H. (2010). Beyond Smarter: Mediated learning and the Brain’s Capacity for Change. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Gal’perin, P. Ya. (1989). Mental actions as a basis for the formation of thoughts and images. Soviet Psychology 27 (2): 45–64. https://doi.org/10.2753/rpo1061-0405270345
Gal’perin, P. Ya. (1992). Stage-by-stage formation as a method of psychological investigation. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology 30: 60–80. https://doi.org/10.2753/rpo1061-0405300460
Gánem-Gutiérrez, G. A. and Harun, H. (2011). Verbalisation as a mediational tool for understanding tense-aspect marking in English: An application of Concept-Based Instruction. Language Awareness 20: 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2010.551125
Holzman, L. (2009) Vygotsky at Work and Play. London: Routledge.
Infante, P. (2016). Mediated Development: Promoting L2 Conceptual Development through Interpsychological Activity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Infante, P. (2018). Mediated Development: Promoting learner internalization of L2 concepts through cognitive-process focused activities. In J. P. Lantolf, M. E. Poehner, and M. Swain (Eds), The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development, 229–246. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315624747
Kinard, Sr., J. T. and Kozulin, A. (2008). Rigorous Mathematical Thinking. Conceptual Formation in the Mathematics Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511814655
Kozulin, A. (2003). Psychological tools and mediated learning. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V. S. Ageyev, and S. M. Miller (Eds), Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context, 15–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511840975.003
Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume II: Descriptive Application. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Lantolf, J. P. (2011). Integrating sociocultural theory and cognitive linguistics in the second language classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning vol. 2, 303–318. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203836507.ch19
Lantolf, J. P. and Poehner, M. E. (2014). Sociocultural Theory and the Pedagogical Imperative in L2 Education. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813850
Lantolf, J. P. and Poehner, M. E. (2004). Dynamic Assessment: Bringing the past into the future. Journal of Applied Linguistics 1 (1): 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.1.1.49.55872
Lantolf, J. P. and Thorne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm027
Luria, A. R. (1961). Study of the abnormal child. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry: A Journal of Human Behavior 31: 1–16.
Masuda, K. and Arnett, C. (2015). Cognitive linguistics, sociocultural theory and language teaching: Introduction. In K. Masuda, C. Arnett, and A. Labarca (Eds), Cognitive Linguistics and Sociocultural Theory: Applications for Second and Foreign Language Teaching, 1–21. Boston, MA: DeGruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614514442-003
Miller, R. (2011). Vygotsky in Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mitchell, R., Myles, M. and Marsden, E. (2013). Second Language Learning Theories (3rd ed). London: Hodder Arnold.
Negueruela, E. (2003). A sociocultural approach to the teaching and learning of second languages: Systemic-theoretical instruction and L2 development. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Negueruela, E. (2008). Revolutionary pedagogies: Learning that leads (to) second language development. In J. P. Lantolf and M. E. Poehner (Eds), Sociocultural Theory and the Teaching of Second Languages, 189–227. London: Equinox.
Newman, F. and Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist. London: Routledge.
Poehner, M. E. (2008). Dynamic Assessment: A Vygotskian Approach to Understanding and Promoting Second Language Development. Berlin: Springer Publishing.
Poehner, M. E. (2016). Sociocultural Theory and the dialectical-materialist approach to L2 development. Language and Sociocultural Theory 3 (2): 133–152. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.v3i2.32869
Poehner, M. E. and Infante, P. (2015). Mediated Development as inter-psychological activity for L2 education. Language and Sociocultural Theory 2: 161–183. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.v2i2.26982
Poehner, M. E., and Infante, P. (2017). Mediated Development: A Vygotskian approach to transforming second language learner abilities. TESOL Quarterly 51(2), 332–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.308
Poehner, M. E. and van Compernolle, R. A. (2011). Frames of interaction in Dynamic Assessment: Developmental diagnoses of second language learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice 18 (2): 183–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2011.567116
Radden, G. and Dirven, R. (2007). Cognitive English Grammar. Volume 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Sternberg, R. J. and Grigorenko, E. L. (2002). Dynamic Testing. The Nature and Measurement of Learning Potential. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tyler, A. (2012). Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Learning: Theoretical Basics and Experimental Evidence. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876039
Tsagari, D. and Csepes, I. (2011). Classroom Based Language Assessment (Language Testing and Evaluation). Bern: Peter Lang AG.
van Compernolle, R. A. (2012). Developing Sociopragmatic Capacity in a Second Language through Concept-Based Instruction (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
van der Veer, J. and Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis. Oxford: Blackwell.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 1, Problems of General Psychology, Including the Volume Thinking and Speech. R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton (Eds). New York: Plenum. https://doi.org/10.1086/356870
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 5, Child Psychology. R. W. Rieber (Ed.). New York, Plenum.
Published
2019-09-04
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Articles
How to Cite
Infante, P., & Poehner, M. (2019). Realizing the ZPD in Second Language Education: The Complementary Contributions of Dynamic Assessment and Mediated Development. Language and Sociocultural Theory, 6(1), 63-91. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.38916
