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L. S. Vygotsky proposed that human consciousness entails the dialectical interaction between memory, attention, perception, emotion and motivation, imagination, and rational thought, organized in large part through language, or more appropriately, communicative meaning-making activity. The development of consciousness occurs more or less spontaneously (i.e., unplanned) in everyday life activity and in more systematically organized and intentionally planned educational activity. An important component of the developmental process is the conceptual knowledge that cultures make available to their through various types of social relations. In everyday life, this knowledge is largely empirically based, while in formally organized educational development conceptual knowledge is highly systematic and much more readily recontextualizable than is everyday knowledge. Academic concepts are derived from rigorous research and as such reveal processes and components of material reality that are otherwise hidden from direct empirical observation by our senses. The responsibility of presenting and explaining academic concepts to students in educational activity is carried out by specially prepared individuals—teachers—who engage students in intentionally planned and (hopefully) rigorous interactions, mediated largely, though not exclusively, through language. According to the pedagogical imperative, as it relates to instruction in world languages, relevant high quality theoretical and conceptual knowledge must be made pedagogically viable; that is, understandable to both teachers and learners and it must be useable by learners to mediate their generation of meaning in practical communicative activities. The knowledge must be presented in a memorable way, usually in a holistic visual representation rather than traditional verbally based rules of thumb and learners must be guided through appropriate prompts, clues, and hints provided primarily by teachers, but at times also by peers, to internalize this knowledge so that it becomes functional in communicative practices. Finally, recognition must be given to the fact that development of any kind, including that provoked by educational practice, must not only take account of the participants (students and teachers) intellect, it must also profoundly consider the emotional aspects of the educational process as teachers and learners engage in the dialectic process captured by Vygotsky in the Russian term, obuchenie, or teaching–learning, whereby teachers and learners engage in a process of mutual mediation.

This article reports on a pedagogical project aimed at helping second language (L2) learners of English develop the ability to detect and appropriately interpret spoken sarcasm. The study used a pre- and posttest procedure to assess the development of learners’ ability to both detect sarcasm and impute appropriate speaker intentions and attitudes conveyed through sarcastic utterances as result of a 10-week instructional program. The study also used interviews to gauge changes in learners’ conceptual understanding of English sarcasm. Beyond improving learners’ ability in the L2, a side effect of the project was that learners reported an enhanced awareness of the use and functions of sarcasm in their first language (L1), Korean.

We respond here to Pienemann's critique of our study that appeared earlier this year in the Language Learning Special Issue entitled “Orders and Sequences in the Acquisition of L2 Morphosyntax, 40 Years On” and guest edited by Jan Hulstijn, Rod Ellis, and Soren Eskildsen. Pienemann objected to our claim that the Teachability Hypothesis is a corollary of general Processability Theory; to our use of elicited imitation, one of the three tasks in our study, because only spontaneous speech can generate data that are relevant for assessing the predictions of Processability Theory and Teachability Hypothesis; and to our alleged departure from the requirements of Processability Theory with regard to what counts as evidence of a stage having been attained or not. We also address the issue of the relationship between morphological and syntactic development raised by Lenzing.

In this article we argue that figurative language, specifically realized as metaphor, must become an essential aspect of any pedagogical program. The ability to understand and produce appropriate metaphors in a second language can no longer remain on the margins of linguistic proficiency; on the contrary, without such ability a speaker cannot effectively express him or herself or comprehend fully what a native interlocutor may be intending to communicate. That is, to genuinely achieve an advanced level of proficiency it is necessary that a speaker develop a metaphorical capacity in the second language. We begin the article with a discussion of the theory of metaphor proposed by Lakoff and his colleagues. We explain the principal concepts of the theory that we believe to be relevant to second-language pedagogy. We then present some examples of materials from a pedagogical program that we have developed to teach metaphors that commu-nicate emotions and that use colors, animals and sports as source domains. ...

Dynamic Assessment (DA) derives from Vygotsky’s (1987) insight that the use of mediation, attuned to learner needs, enables learners to perform beyond their current level of functioning, thereby providing insights into emerging capabilities. The instructional quality of mediation means that this process simultaneously creates possibilities for development, even over the course of a single session, a phenomenon referred to as ‘microgenesis’ (Wertsch, 1985). An important feature of DA is transfer, or transcendence: the process of tracking learner development as it unfolds not only with regard to control of tasks included in an assessment but also more complex and difficult tasks that build on those included in the original instrument (Campione, Brown, Ferrera, & Bryant, 1984; Feuerstein, Rand, & Hoffman, 1979; Poehner, 2007). The present study reports on the use of DA principles in tests of second language (L2) listening and reading comprehension delivered through an online format. The tests, which incorporate mediation, include transfer items to determine the extent to which learner development is supported during the test. This process generates three scores: actual (to capture unmediated performance); mediated (reflecting responsiveness to assistance provided on each test item); and a learning potential score (based on gain between actual and mediated performance) that indicates how much investment in future instructional activity is likely required for development to move forward.

This paper considers dynamic assessment (DA) as it relates to second language (L2) development. DA is grounded in Vygotsky's (1987) sociocultural theory of mind, which holds that human consciousness emerges as a result of participation in culturally organized social activities where mediation plays a key role in guiding development. In DA, the evidential basis for diagnosing and promoting development includes independent as well as mediated performance. Unlike in conventional testing, objectivity derives not from standardization, which treats everyone in precisely the same manner; rather, objectivity is argued on the grounds that mediation is guided by a viable theory of mind. Fairness in assessment is thus reframed with the understanding that the quality of support offered may vary across individuals. The paper illustrates how this transpires in the case of classroom-based and formal testing applications of DA with L2 learners.

This study examined whether consciousness-raising (C-R) in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) fosters grammatical development; specifically, development of por/para and ser/estar . In order to determine the efficacy of C-R in SCMC, two groups were analyzed; one group was designated as form-and-meaning focused while the other was meaning-focused. Each group engaged in weekly chats and addressed the same discussion topics. Three pre- and post-tests (Elicited Imitation/Sentence Repetition Testing, Grammaticality Preferences Component, and oral examinations) were administered. It was determined that: (1) there were statistically significant differences on the outcomes of the EI/SRT and GPC post-tests in favor of the FFMF group, (2) the FFMF group produced greater quantities and more accurate quantities of language, (3) the FFMF group demonstrated higher levels of syntactic maturity with statistically significant results, did not employ a default form of the copular verb, and actively engaged in corrective feedback strategies, (4) the FFMF and MF groups performed equally well, statistically, on both the post-test orals and in terms of semantic range but the social dynamic that surfaced in each group were distinct, (5) the MF group did not ignore form but employed ser as a default, (6) the instructor exercised the same feedback practices for both groups. It was concluded that C-R on por/para, ser/estar in SCMC most likely fostered the development of those grammatical features to a greater degree than in chat without specific instructions to focus on form. When held responsible for its own C-R in SCMC, consciousness was raised for the FFMF group but students were unable to limit the scope of their focus to por/para, ser/estar alone. Overt evidence reveals that they did focus on ser/estar but there is no such evidence for por/para. However, the global approach to C-R assumed by the FFMF positively impacted development, por/para included. In terms of the MF group, it is concluded that the lack of focusing on por/para, ser/estar did not impede upon development, and that unintentional focus on form was insufficient to facilitate growth to the same degree as deliberate focus, although the MF participants demonstrated awareness to form in SCMC.

This paper examines multimodal conceptual metaphors in a corpus of 32 American and Ukrainian beer commercials. The dominant metaphor in both cultures is HAPPINESS IS DRINKING BEER, with a secondary metaphor BEER IS A PERSON. The Ukrainian commercials exhibit a third metaphor that appears in a very subtle way in the American commercials: LOVE FOR THE MOTHERLAND IS DRINKING BEER. The analysis reveals cross-cultural variation in the mappings and entailments of the metaphors. We argue that this variation is not just a matter of divergent advertising strategies but is a manifestation of differences in the conceptual understandings of happiness, beer drinking, friendship, and patriotism in both cultures. Este estudio investiga las metaforas conceptuales multimodales en un corpus de treinta y dos anuncios publicitarios de cerveza estadounidenses y ucranianas. La metafora principal en ambas culturas es LA FELICIDAD ES TOMAR CERVEZA, y una metafora secundaria es LA CERVEZA ES UNA PERSONA. Los comerciales ucranianos manifiestan una tercera metafora que aparece de una manera sutil en los comerciales estadounidenses: EL AMOR A LA PATRIA ES TOMAR CERVEZA. El analisis revela una variacion transcultural en las proyecciones e inferencias de las metaforas. Proponemos que esta variacion no solo se debe a estrategias de publicidad divergentes, sino que revela diferencias en la comprension conceptual de la felicidad, tomar cerveza, la amistad y el patriotismo entre las dos culturas.

This article reports the efforts of an elementary school teacher of Spanish as a second language to implement principles of dynamic assessment (DA) in her daily interactions with learners. DA is neither an assessment instrument nor a method of assessing but a framework for conceptualizing teaching and assessment as an integrated activity of understanding learner abilities by actively supporting their development (Poehner, 2008). DA is based on Vygotsky’s (1987) proposal of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which underscores the developmental importance of providing appropriate support to learners to help them stretch beyond their independent performance. The particular approach to DA that the teacher followed reflected her interpretation of the ZPD as well as her knowledge of her instructional context and was arrived at through consultation with the present authors. In other words, her use of DA represents a unification of theory and practice, as advocated by Vygotsky, whereby theory offers a basis to guide practice but at the same time practice functions to refine and extend theory. Examples of the teacher’s interactions with learners in her classroom are discussed with regard to the opportunities for development they create.

This presentation is situated within the general framework of Vygotsky's educational theory, which argues that development in formal educational activity is a fundamentally different process from development that occurs in the everyday world. A cornerstone of Vygotsky's theory is that to be successful education must be sensitive to learners' zone of proximal development. This requires the dialectical integration of instruction and assessment into a seamless and dynamic activity. The presentation includes a discussion of how the integration is systematically achieved in the process known as dynamic assessment and illustrates through analysis of data from advanced learners of French how this functions in second language education.

In this article, we extend Firth and Wagner's (1997) call for an ontological perspective that (re)unites the individual and the social by proposing some fundamental implications that this call has for second language (L2) classroom praxis and teacher education. We propose that the (re)unification of language and culture (re)establishes the unity between people and language, and thus reorients the focus of language instruction to feature centrally how meaning is situated in concrete human activity rather than in the language itself. From this stance, the goal of L2 classroom praxis is for learners to develop a conceptual understanding of how meaning gets expressed through the L2 in concrete everyday activity, and to build their capacity to make choices about how to function in and potentially alter that activity to suit their needs and goals. To make our proposal concrete, we draw on two classroom case studies: on verbal aspect in Spanish and learning to read L2 literature, as illustrations of conceptualizing learning and use as dialectically intertwined. We also focus on how foregrounding the meaning that results from the reintegration of language and culture reorients both L2 classroom praxis and how L2 teachers come to think about language, language learning, and language teaching.

This article examines Slobin's concept of thinking for speaking (TFS) in the gesture/speech interface of advanced L2 speakers of English and Spanish. The focus is on the use of motion verbs in the respective languages. English, a satellite-framed language, encodes manner of motion in the verb and indicates path of motion on satellite phrases (e.g. The frog leaped out of the boy's pocket). Spanish, a verb-framed language, encodes path, and only rarely manner of motion, in the verb. If manner is encoded at all, it is done either through lexical phrases (e.g. Tarzan salto de liana a liana‘Tarzan jumped from vine to vine’) or gesture. Using McNeill's notion of growth point, the study suggests that L2 speakers, even at advanced levels, have difficulties manifesting L2 TFS patterns and continue to rely on the patterns internalized in their L1. Shifting from an L1 to an L2 TFS is particularly vexing for the L1 English speakers, because their L1 is richly endowed with manner verbs, while Spanish, their L2, is not. Spanish L1 speakers in L2 English, on the other hand, can rely on the English equivalents of basic manner verbs in Spanish. The analysis also suggests the need for reconsidering how manner verbs are categorized.

Over the course of the past century, the MLJ was one of the sites where the vigorous, and often times passionate justification for, and defense of, foreign language (FL) study in the educational curriculum of the United States unfolded. Almost 10% of the slightly more than 4,000 articles published in the MLJ during the past century focused on the value and relevance of FL study in the educational enterprise. This article will focus on five major themes that surfaced throughout the 8 decades covered by our survey. The first theme comprises the general arguments offered by the profession in support of the value of FL study, most of which were impacted directly or indirectly by world events. The second and third themes document periods of general doubt and optimism about the place of FLs in the curriculum. In the fourth major theme, we describe the passionate and intense argumentation between the faculties of education and the defenders of FL study. The fifth, and final theme, addresses the question of which FLs should be taught in the schools and what contribution each might make to a student’s education. As we enter the 21st century, it seems clear that the profession still feels compelled to justify the educational merit of its subject matter. In the end, given the twists and turns that history can take, it is difficult to predict whether FL study will eventually find an uncontested place in the sun.

In this paper we provide empirical support from L 2 learning for Vygotsky's claim that development and performance in mental systems is not a smooth linear process, but simultaneously entails forward movement and regression , or what some L 2 researchers refer to as backsliding . After considering the specifics of Vygotsky's argument, we show that because learning arises in “zones of proximal development”, regression is manifested not only in the linguistic features of the second language produced by learners, but also in the frequency and quality of help as other-regulation negotiated between learners and experts. Although other L 2 researchers have recognized the appearance of regression among learners, we propose a different theoretical status for the phenomenon than is currently the case.

This study investigates the interface between speech and gesture in second language (L2) narration within Slobin's (2003) thinking-for-speaking (TFS) framework as well as with respect to McNeill's (1992, 2005) growth point (GP) hypothesis. Specifically, our interest is in whether speakers shift from a first language (L1) to a L2 TFS pattern as manifested in the GP of narrations they produce. The data are drawn from the narrations of an animated cartoon story produced by advanced L2 speakers of Korean (L1 English) and L2 speakers of English (L1 Korean). Korean is a verb-framed language (Talmy, 2000) that conflates path of motion on the verb and expresses manner, if at all, through separate lexical items, onomatopoeia, or gesture alone. English is a satellite-framed language (Talmy, 2000) that encodes manner on verbs, expresses path through satellite phrases, and synchronizes manner-path conflated gestures with manner verbs when manner is in focus. The typological difference between the languages presents significant challenges for the L2 speakers, who, despite their high level of proficiency in their respective L2s, appear to retain their L1 TFS patterns.

This article considers the implications of two central constructs of sociocultural theory (SCT) for second language (L2) development: mediation and internalization. It first discusses Vygotsky's general theoretical claim that human mental activity arises as a consequence of the functional system formed by our biologically specified mental capacities and our culturally constructed symbolic artifacts. It then examines some of the L2 research that has investigated the extent to which L2 users are able to deploy their new language for cognitive mediation. Specific attention is given to the mediational function of L2 private speech and to the synchronization of gestures and speech from the perspective of Slobin's thinking for speaking framework, a framework that interfaces quite well with Vygotsky's theory. The second general topic addressed, internalization, is intimately connected to the first. It is argued that internalization of the features of a L2 takes place through imitation, especially as occurs in private speech. Imitation, based on recent neuroscience and child development research, is seen as an intentional and potentially transformative process rather than as rote mimicking. The research documents that L2 children and adults rely on imitation in their private speech when they encounter new linguistic affordances. What remains to be established is the connection between the linguistic features of private speech and those deployed by L2 speakers in their social performance. Finally, the article proposes that the study of how L2 learners internalize and develop the capacity to use conceptual and associated linguistic knowledge should move to the forefront of SCT L2 research and argues that a productive way of realizing this agenda is through the union of SCT and cognitive linguistics.

Second language acquisition research is coming to recognize the influence of the sociocultural environment in the L2 learning. For example, beginning with the early work of Frawley and Lantolf (1985), a group of L2 researchers have been exploring the implications of L. S. Vygotsky's (1978, 1986) sociocultural theory of mind (henceforth, SCT) for the learning and teaching of languages beyond the first. Similarly, scholars working within the Conversational Analysis tradition, stimulated in large part by the seminal article of Firth and Wagner (1997), have also been investigating the impact of conversation on L2 development. It should come as no real surprise that researchers interested in dynamic systems theory (henceforth DST), and its variants (emergentism, chaos and complexity theory) have also shown an interest in the implications of their theoretical stance for SLA. Larsen-Freeman (1997, 2002), to my knowledge, the first researcher to make a case for the potential relevance of chaos and complexity theory for L2 acquisition, argues for the need to expand the scope of factors impacting on L2 learning to consider more than what goes on inside of a learner's head. In addition to Larsen-Freeman's publications, a special issue of Applied Linguistics (N. Ellis and Larsen-Freeman, 2006) and an invited colloquium at the 2006 Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (De Bot, 2006) have been devoted to the topic. The contribution by De Bot, Lowie and Verspoor (henceforth, DBL&V) represents a significant continuation of this trend.

An empirically-supported theoretical argument is made for the relevance of private speech, or intrapersonal communication, in the internalization of an L2. We propose that the process is parallel to that attested in children learning their L1. In internalization learners imitate the linguistic affordances made available by the classroom community. Imitation, in the theoretical perspective that informs the study, is not mimicking; rather it is a uniquely human, and potentially transformative, process in which the individual constructs his or her unique psychological understanding of the new language. We analyze a data set taken from recordings of the private speech of an adult classroom learner of Spanish. The analysis shows that learners are cognitively active participants in classroom communities even when they are not engaged in overt social interaction. It also shows that learners focus on aspects of the L2 that do not necessarily coincide with the teacher's instructional goal.

While the recent explosion of work on L2 discourse has provided researchers with a mass of data on the development of communicative abilities, we find that most of this work is predicated on a single (perhaps even curious) assumption: that all discourse, of which L2 discourse is taken as a subcategory, is intended by its speakers to be informative to some interlocutor (i.e., transmits a message via an acoustic or graphic conduit) and that the production of discourse entails the formulation of strategies on the part of speakers in order to maximize this transmission of data. That discourse is not communicative (i.e., sending and receiving information) by nature has, in fact, been long known, but overlooked, especially in L2 research. Malinowski pointed out as early as 1935 that:Language is an activity the function of which is not an expression of thought or communication of ideas … the neglect of the obvious has often been fatal to the development of scientific thought. The false conception of language as a means of transferring ideas from the head of the speaker to that of the listener has, in my opinion, largely vitiated the philological approach to language (Malinowski, 1935, 9).