THE RELEVANCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF （的相关性和影响）.pdf

ARECLS, 2008, Vol.5, 244-262. THE RELEVANCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM MAMOUR CHOUL TURUK Abstract Sociocultural theory has made a great impact on the learning and teaching profession. The theory advocates learning, including L2 acquisition, as a semiotic process where participation in socially mediated activities is essential. It regards instruction as crucial to L2 development and should be geared to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) that is beyond the learner‟s actual development level. It believes that learning in an L2 context should be a collaborative achievement and not an isolated individual‟s effort where the learner works unassisted and unmediated. This literature review discusses the relevance and implications of this theory to L2 teaching. Keywords: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Metacognition, Scaffolding, Mediation, Internalisation Introduction Vygotsky (1896-1934) is one of the Russian psychologists whose ideas have influenced the field of educational psychology and the field of education as whole. For him, although biological factors constitute the necessary pre-requisite for elementary processes to emerge, sociocultural factors are indispensable for elementary natural 244 ARECLS, 2008, Vol.5, 244-262. processes to develop. He argues for the uniqueness of the social milieu and regards socio- cultural settings as the primary and determining factor in the development of higher forms of human mental activity such as voluntary attention, intentional memory, logical thought, planning, and problem solving. However, his most outstanding work is the concept of Zone of Proximal Developm