Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Second Language Learning Theories

Spring 2007

Week 11 - Answers

M&M, Chapter 7: Sociocultural perspectives on second language learning

1. How might the phenomenon of inner speech be related to second language learning?

The big question here revolves around the role that inner speech may or may not play in second language learning. According to Vygotsky (1986), learners use inner speech as a mechanism for organizing their thoughts and language. Inner speech is supposed to facilitate the use of language as we endeavour to use language to explain the world/in dealing with the world. The basic idea is that because inner speech is used as a way of thinking language and thought are inextricably entwined. We use language, or a reduced form thereof, even when we are not talking. Thus, thought and language have a reciprocal effect on each other when we consider learning. Following this argument, getting students to talk will improve the way they think and visa versa. Looking at instances of inner speech we see the deep connection between cognition and actual language use.

It should be acknowledged, and this is an interesting point, that the use of inner speech in native speakers has been shown to have a detrimental effect on cognitive processing as a whole (for a review see Meissner & Memon, 2002). Referred to as a "verbal shadowing" effect, trying to actually get people to use language to encode non-linguistic information, thus creating a possibility for inner speech during the encoding or retrieval (using) of this knowledge, actually often results in poorer retrieval of the knowledge and even encoding/storage of the knowledge (Dodson et al., 1997). Again, this is an effect on certain types of knowledge as demonstrated in native speakers. Verbal shadowing works in a versy simple way. Generally, a researcher provides two types of input simultaneously (usually linguistic and non-linguistic, but it may be two different types of non-linguistic) to a subject and analyses their effects on each other. Research indicates that the verbal shadowing effect is a negative one. We can explain this through the concept of attention and processing. If there is too much input coming in, especially if the input is conflicting, then the person will be torn as to what should be focussed on and without a clear focus they will not be able to encode as well.

The large question remains, since second language learners do seem to use inner speech is the use of inner speech more helpful or less helpful and maybe even detrimental to actual language use and cognition? The conclusion we came to class was that even if inner speech seems to slow processing down and cause some general confusion due to an over straining of attention and by association processing systems, this may be a good thing for learners. If learners are to learn by doing and in social settings then they need to slow down. In this way, the verbal overshadowing effect may actually be helping people when they learn provided we as teacher are aware of it and try to slow things down a bit or repeat them so that deficits in processing can be overcome.

2. How can activity theory be related to learner variability?

The basic idea here is that again every learner has a different cognitive background and therefore they will approach a specific task in different ways. As teachers it should be clear that the kind of freer, less controlled task necessary for interaction is going to be open to all sorts of variation on the students part. This is simply the reality of language teaching. Interestingly, McCafferty et al. (2001) are able to show some sort of development within how different learners approach tasks in general. They identify a dramatic shift wherein learner's first move indirectly around the task to where learners directly confront and approach attacks using specific strategies. This is also called moving from other-controlled to self-controlled processes. For us as teachers this is an important and, in my experience, true observation. It's important in that it tells us that we need to somehow get our students to actively engage their tasks. It is the active engagement of a task which allows language development to ensue. In its relation to the first question we can also see that for the development of strategies and more active engagement students do not seem to need to use inner speech overtly in helping them to direct and shape their cognition in relation to a task.

3. How can the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) be used in SLA?

The important thing to remember about the zone of proximal development is that it needs to be closely related to interaction. If the zone(ZPD) is a magical area surrounding a student/person wherein they are capable of learning than we somehow need to activate learning within that zone by boh pushing the `right` type of input/information into the zone as well as by pulling the learner toward the input/information we want them to engage with. In the sociocultural model the way people learn is through interaction. Therefore, for us as language teachers interaction becomes the most important thing that we can foster in the classroom. While Vygotsky focused on expert and novice types of interaction is developing learning through the zone of proximal development, we probably do not have that luxury. We are not able to engage in one-on-one tutoring for the most part, but rather need to try to activate learning in the zone through classroom-based interaction. This means we need to try to get students to interact with other students. Thus, it becomes obvious that pair work and small group work is imperative for language development.

Research has shown that this is in fact the case. Many studies have shown that students do scaffold each other as they work through tasks (Storch, 2002). The reason behind this need for scaffolding is often cited as cognitive/processing/memory limitations. A student who is actually trying to produce a piece of language has too many things to try to think about at the same time and therefore can benefit dramatically from facilitative help given by a partner who has time to better organize what is happening around them since they are not directly involved in the actual production. What is interesting here is that sometimes lower-level speakers can help scaffold higher level learners, depending of course on the task and the relationship between the students involved. In fact, relationship has a much more important effect than level in this.

These are some important findings for us in the classroom (See: http://www.researchtopractice.org/files/I_PresenterPowerPointsandHandouts/I_pdfs_presenterPowerPoints/302_Harris_PairWork.pdf) to see some presentation notes on this). First of all it tells us that we need to get students to engage each other and work collaboratively on tasks. In order for this to happen we need to give them tasks upon which they can work collaboratively. This means we have had more open ended tasks. Then, of course, there's also the variability of the groups which we create. More important than simply the level of the students is their personalities. Students who can and will work together regardless of level should be paired up. Studies have shown that is a tremendous amount of variability and how much students can actually learn through interaction based on who their partners are (Sato, 2001). Students who were overly competitive are generally not good partners. It has also been shown that students can be taught how to better interact with each other to foster more learning. Therefore, we find a substantiation here of something we probably already knew, namely that pair work and group work really does work but only when a group is composed of students who know how to deal with others effectively. Cooperation is the key.

4. How has sociocultural theory affected the field of SLA?

Coming first from the field of general education sociocultural theory has a much more general appeal then a specific appeal to SLA yet. In the same vein, sociocultural theory has opened up a huge can of worms in that it has started people questioning innatist models. But like many other `new` theories for all the questions it may seem to answer it opens up twice as many new ones which are , as yet, unanswered. For example, if pair work in group work fosters interaction and learning in the zone of proximal development, what are the best ways of doing this? There's a mind-boggling array of different variables in how we could possibly manage interaction in the classroom based on the zone of proximal development idea. Aside from that there are strong theoretical concerns and variables related to the zone of proximal development and learning in that zone. Therefore, at this point we still need to acknowledge that sociocultural theory is more of a fledgling theory of SLA than a firmly established one. Part of the problem is that it is so radically different from the current models that it is hard to fit it in. Mitchell and Myles (2004) both correctly and incorrectly claim that socioculturalism is a model without a model of state (it has little backing form theoretical linguists in that it does not fit in with current mainstream models of language. For the model to be accepted it needs first to be able to make claims about what language actually is like. Fortunately we do have a cognitive model of linguistics which unfortunately many SLA researchers seem to be totally oblivious to. Not only does a cognitive linguistic model give us a state which correlates nicely with connectionist models of language processing and organization, but it may also provide a proper language state model for sociocultural views of learning, which incidentally must also be supported by connectionist ideals. This seems to be the movement of the future in SLA and one which we should really focus our attention on more.

Johnson, Chapter 8: Vygotsky`s sociocultural theory and second language learning

5. What kind of studies have been carried on the concept of the ZPD in SLA?

Donato (1998) - Input and interaction

This study focused on the role that interaction plays in getting people to internalize or appropriate input. Rather than focusing on the internal mechanisms of the learner this study showed that interaction is necessary for input to actually be appropriated. Once more the interaction does not necessarily need to be between an expert and a learner or learners of various levels. Learners of the same level can actually help each other in this process.

Schinke-Llano (1998) - Accomodation

In this study she focused on the queues that learners give to each other regarding their need for assistance in a process. Too much help or accommodation actually impedes the learning process, therefore it is important to examine how people actually know when to give help and when not to supply help for their partner. What this study shows is interestingly that experts often supply too much help depending on their perception of the person they're working with. The shows that interactions can be quite dangerous and that students might need to be trained about how to go about interacting.

Washburn (1998) - Fossilization

From this study we get a very fresh idea of the ideal fossilization. Often fossilization is misinterpreted by teachers as well as students of languages as being somehow related to errors or error analysis. Certainly fossilized individuals may show certain patterns of errors, but then again they may not. What fossilization really is is when learning stops or slows down. In this study Washburn tries to interpret fossilization through the sociocultural model. We can simplify this by simply coming up with our own definition of fossilization which says that fossilized individuals have smaller and sometimes very tiny zones of proximal development. This means that they are resistant to learning and learning is difficult for them. This is not because they have fossilized forms as is often thought to be the case but is often because they have had negative experiences in their learning. From the sociocultural perspective and fossilization needs to be countered by working to expand the zone of proximal development for these people. Washburn says that we need to go back and examine where the learning might have gone wrong and start off again from that point. This is a useful idea for us as language teachers in Korea where we can assume that many of our students either already are or will be fossilized at some point.

Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994) - Negative feedback

This is an extremely important paper and really a first of its kind to investigate specifically how we might actually get into and use students' zone of proximal development to help them learn material. They have a very interesting research designed focusing on just three learners and their interaction with tutors. By getting feedback first it is very in explicit and they and seeing how the learners react to this the tutors can slowly determine what is the right level of feedback to give to the learners. We are given a scale of feedback moving from implicit to more explicit. The authors advocate that when getting feedback to students we always start with more implicit type of feedback and depending on the students need them only move to more implicit when it is necessary. It should also be noted that different students are going to need different levels and types of feedback and that even the same student depending on the error present will also require different types. In addition to their levels of feedback they also give us levels for students related to their ability to notice errors. This is all very important information for us and how we can actually manage our classroom where students need to actually interact with each other and engage in language production.

Ohta (2000) - Interaction

In this study she focused on interaction between peers. What was basically found is that, at least for her students, not only did peers provide effective scaffolding, but they were also able to pick up on the necessary clues related to when scaffolding was required. This paper provides quite positive information about actually trying to use some of these approaches in the classroom. Of course such findings also come with certain warnings. While her results are impressive, they might not reoccur in every situation. We as teachers need to try to make sure that such results do reoccur in our own classroom and much more often than they do not. She uses a model for how we might want to construct and regulate the interactions between our students.

6. How does Vygotskian interaction work in second language learning?

Swain (2000) - Output

The point of this paper is to argue that we need to expand our definition of output and the output hypothesis to include output as a means not just of internalizing learning but learning across individuals. This is a very important claim and is the basis of Vygotsky's model. It is useful to see an article which supports this claim in a very simple and basic way.

Sullivan (2000) - Mediation

In this paper Sullivan criticizes the current way in which the communicative approach is done in the classroom as again simply following this basic conduit metaphor: Students apply other students with information. She claims that information is not the basis of learning. Contrary to this, it is mediation which is responsible for learning. Learners learn through interactive processes and mediating meaning. This falls back to the basic idea that everybody approaches a learning situation from a different position. In this way mediation is not only necessary but is also to be expected. Because every learner different as they move through a task they will have to mediate meaning. Even as they appropriate forms from each other they have to take ownership of these forms through a mediating process and this is where learning occurs. Interesting!

7. What do studies reveal about activity theory and SLA?

Gillette (1998) - Learner roles

In this paper she explores the difference between good learners and maybe not so good learners. This is an important variable for us as teachers trying to follow some sort of sociocultural approach because a bad learner, defined as someone who puts very little effort into the learning process, will disturb the learning of those they are interacting with. In order for interactions to be effective and useful all people involved need to be motivated to try and learn and to help other try to learn. It is these different learning orientations which really affect learning outcomes and teachers need somehow to determine ways to effect is in their own classrooms.

Coughlan and Duff (1998) - Tasks

In this paper the authors investigate how different tasks affect different learning outcomes. This of course is something that is extremely important for teachers, particularly teachers who are somewhat new to the task based approach and task development for sociocultural types of teaching. They claim that tasks need to be strongly differentiated from activities and that tasks need to have a degree of unpredictability built into their design wherein different students can achieve the goals of the task in different ways.

Roebuck (2000) - Learners in tasks

The idea in this article is that learners, in doing the same task, show a remarkable amount of variability. While this should not be surprising to us at this point it sheds further light on the idea that we need to construct tasks with allow for and also have tolerance for variability in our students.

8. What do studies reveal about inner speech and SLA?

McCafferty (1998) - Private speech and proficiency

The main hypothesis underlying this study is that as proficiency increases the use of private speech will diminish as it is no longer necessary. Not surprisingly this is exactly what was found. The results clearly show the importance of private speech as a mechanism for learning. As people move through different stages of proficiency they will go through periods where they need sometimes more, and increasingly less, private speech to help them not only organize but also, as we saw earlier, give them time to think about what it is that they're going to say. Thus, private speech seems to be a very important aspect of learning and is something that we need to encourage our students to do.

de Guerrero (1998) - Forms and function

This study focused not on the diminishing necessity of private speech but on the nature of private speech itself. The results find that as proficiency levels rise so too does the complexity of the private speech used by the learner. Therefore a direct correlation is found between not only private speech and learning but private speech and linguistic proficiency. Interestingly, she also found a correlation between proficiency development and non-verbal communication.

McCafferty and Ahmed (2000) - Gestures

Based not only on the findings of the previously mentioned study but also on Vygotsky's own assertions about the importance of gestures as a prelinguistic means of encoding concepts, this study endeavors to find a closer relationship between gesturing and learning. Again, it was claimed that gestures were learned not through instruction as much as through interaction, much like language itself. In addition it was also found that naturalistic environments in which students need to interact and engage each other provided ample opportunity for gestures to be learned. These are important findings based on the role gestures play in the sociocultural model.

Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) - Internal cognitive restructuring

This is an important study in that it deals with the learner's idea of their inner associations, what the authors call the participation metaphor. To a large extent we could simply define this as being a kind of acculturation type study, but taken from a sociocultural perspective. The idea is that as people shift their identity from one culture to another they have to actually start behaving differently and this means engaging in different ways. For us in the classroom this basically tells us something very simple. Learners who still think of themselves as Koreans and behave distinctly like Koreans and refuse to behave as speakers of the target language will have tremendous difficulty learning. It seems in order to extend and build ourselves the zone of proximal development we need to move through stages in our own internal conceptualization of ourselves.

References

Aljaafreh, A and J. Lantolf. (1994). Negative feedback as regulation and second language learning in the Zone of Proximal Development. Modern Language Journal 78, pp. 465-83.

Coughlan, P. and P. Duff. (1998). Same task, different activities: Analysis of a SLA task from an Activity Theory perspective. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 173-193.

Dodson, C. M. Johnson, and J. Schooner. (1997). The verbal overshadowing effect: Why descriptions impair face recognition. Memory & Cognition 25, (2), pp. 129-139.

Donato, R. (1998). Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 173-193.

Gillette, B. (1998). The role of learner goals in L2 success. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 195-213.

de Guerrero, M. (1998). Forms and functions in inner speech in adult second language learning. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 83-115.

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

Lantolf, J. and G. Appel (eds.). Vygotskian approaches to second language learning. Norwood, NJ.: Ablex.

McCafferty, S. (1998). The use of private speech by adult ESL learners at different levels of proficiency. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 117-134.

McCafferty, S. and M. Ahmed. (2000). The appropriation of gestures of the abstract by L2 learners. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 199-218.

McCafferty, S., R. Roebuck, and R. Wayland. (2001). Activity theory and the incidental learning of second language vocabulary. Language Teaching Research 10, pp. 289-294.

Meissner, C. and A. Memon. (2002). Verbal overshadowing: A special issue exploring theoretical and applied issues. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, pp. 869-872.

Ohta, A. (2000). Rethinking interaction in SLA: Developmentally appropriate assistance in the zone of proximal development and the acquisition of LA grammar. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 51-88.

Pavlenko, A. and J. Lantolf. (2000). Second language learning as participation and the (re)construction of selves. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 155-177.

Roebuck, R. (2000). Subjects speak out: How ;learners position themselves in a psycholinguistic task. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 79-95.

Sato, T. (2001). Learner instruction during pair communication activities in university Japanese-as-a Foreign-Language classrooms: An `emic` perspective on peer interaction. Retrieved from: http://www.councilnet.org/papers/Sato.doc.

Schinke-Llano, L. (1998). Linguistic accommodation with LEP and LD children. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 57-68.

Storch, N. (2002). Patterns of Interaction in ESL Pair Work. Language Learning, 52 (1), pp. 119-158.

Sullivan, P. (2000). Playfulness as mediation in communicative language teaching in a Vietnamese classroom. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 115-131.

Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In J. Lantolf. (ed.)., pp. 97-114.

Vygotsky. L. (1986/1934). Thought and language. (Translated by A. Kozulin). Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.

Washburn, G. (1998). Working in the ZPD: Fossilized and nonfossilized nonnative speakers. In J. Lantolf and G. Appel (eds.)., pp. 69-80.