تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

The applied linguistics challenge SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

المؤلف:  Alan Davies

المصدر:  An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

الجزء والصفحة:  P155-C8

2026-08-05

14

The applied linguistics challenge

SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

Block discusses a further approach to the native speaker issue in his account of sociocultural theory (Block 2003). As its name suggests, sociocultural theory attempts to link human/mental processes to their cultural, historical and institutional settings. Because it appears to bridge the psycholinguistic and the sociolinguistic it has attracted increasing attention to combat the partial approach by one or the other. It also allows for the bringing together for language learning of the native speaker and the second-language learner and permits a unified model since in both cases what Vygotsky termed the zone of proximal development has to be negotiated. As such, it permits an explanation of the native speaker in terms of normal human development which includes the inter-relationship of language and thought. What education (or other intervention) needs to achieve is this linkage in second languages. The key contribution of sociocultural theory to discussions of and research in language learning generally is that of ‘participation’ (Pavlenko and Lantolf 2000) which combines the social context with individual acquisition. In other words, in terms of our discussion of the native speaker, you do not become an L1 native speaker on your own, you need other (especially adult) participation to negotiate through the zone of proximal development. The implications for this approach are probably most keenly felt in assessment, shown by the claim that all assessment must be participatory. There are, of course, practical problems to overcome; there is also the theoretical problem in that the insistence on participation ignores the potential in all learners (all humans) for imagination and simulation which suggests that virtual participation may be sufficient.