Leo van Lier, Monterey Institute of International Studies

1. Sociocultural Theory: The Main Ideas

• Mediation
• Learning and Development
• Action and Interaction
• The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• Inner Speech

2. An expanded ZPD

• Expert-novice
• Peer collaboration
• Peer teaching
• Self study

3. Scaffolding: A Pedagogical Perspective

• Continuity
• Contextual Support
• Intersubjectivity (Primary and Secondary)
• Contingency
• Handover-Takeover
• Flow

2. Ecology: Perception and Action

• Language: Context and Discourse
• Semiotics: Signs in use, Semiosis (meaning making)
• Emergence: (Emergent Grammar, or 'Grammaring')
• Affordance: Direct and Indirect Perception
• Interaction: Different Participation Patterns
• Critical Perspective: Transformation and Change
• Research Methods: Chaos/Complexity, Systems Theory

5. Conclusions

• Open teaching and learning
• Project-based learning
• Some thoughts on research

6. Some Key References

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Bronfenbrenner, U. (1993). The ecology of cognitive development: Research models and fugitive findings. In Wozniak, R. H. & Fischer, K. W. (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments (pp. 3-44). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Brooks, F.B., Donato, R.  & McGlone, J. V. (1997). When are they going to say “it” right? Understanding learner talk during pair-work activity. Foreign Language Annals, 30, 4: 524-541.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Deci, E. & Flaste, R. (1995). Why we do what we do: The dynamics of personal autonomy.  New York: Putnam’s Sons.

Donato, R. (1994). Collective scaffolding. In Lantolf, J.P. and Appel. G. (Eds.). (1994). Vygotskyan approaches to second language research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. pp. 33-56.

Ellis, R. (2003) Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Guerrero, M. C. M. de.  (1994).  Form and functions of inner speech in adult second language learning.  In J. P. Lantolf & G. Appel (Eds.), Vygotskian approaches to second language research (pp. 83-115).  Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Hopper, P. J. (1998). Emergent grammar. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language structure. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Kalaja, P. & Barcelos, A. M. (Eds.).(2003). Beliefs about SLA: New research approaches. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

Kramsch, C. (Ed.). (2002). Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives. London: Continuum.

Lantolf, J. (ed.) (2000). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lantolf, J., & Thorne, S. (forthcoming). The Sociogenesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston, MA: Heinle.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991).  Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leather, J. & van Dam, J. (Eds.). (2003). Ecology of language acquisition. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

McCafferty, S. (2002). Gesture and creating zones of proximal development for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal 86 (2) 2002, 192-203.

Ohta, A. S. (2001). Second language acquisition processes in the classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In Wertsch, J. V., Del Rio, P, & Alvarez, A. (Eds.)  Sociocultural studies of mind. (pp. 139-164). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-based second language learning: The uses of the first language. Language Teaching Research, 4, 3, 251-274.

van Dam, J. (2002), Ritual, face, and play in a first English lesson: Bootstrapping a classroom culture. In Kramsch, C. (Ed.) Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives (pp. 237-265). London: Continuum.

van Lier, L. (forthcoming). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. (Transl. A Kozulin). Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech. (Transl. N. Minick). In The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume 1: Problems of general psychology. New York: Plenum Press.