Ch.+9+by+James+Lantolf


 * CHAPTER 9 **
 * SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY AND LANGUAGE ACQUSITION BY JAMES P.LANTOLF **

There are certain types of mediation in SLA: social mediation by experts and peers and self-mediation.
 * Mediation and SLA **

//** Experts and Novices **//
 * Social Mediation **

The author states that Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994) look at mediated learning in the “zone of proximal development “ (ZPD). In ZPD SL development is negotiated by experts and novices. SL development move through the stages in which the mediation should be explicit. There are experiments on how teachers engage learners in their ZPD through “instructional conversations”. Donato and Adair-Hauck (1992) conducted experiments and compared //monologic// and //dialogic// instructional talk. The experiments demonstrated that the former failed to push learners` development forward. As for dialogic instructional talk, it could effectively involve students as active participants in their learning. This has positive influence on learners` development. //** Peer Mediation **//

Dialogue among learners can be as effective as dialogic instructional talk between teacher and learner. The author believes that working collaboratively learners are scaffolding each other into an L2 through the use of strategies that were used by teachers. For example, one of the strategies is the willingness of one peer to wait for the other to produce utterances without help. They “feel” when to offer assistance and they seem to be sensitive to each other ZPD. Besides, learners seem to be effective at mutual mediation in their writing activities. There are also a number of strategies that learners use. While learners offered implicit or explicit assistance, their assistance is as contingent, that is, it is withheld at critical junctures. (de Guerro and Villamil, 2000). As for use of L1 in peer mediation it is a controversial issue. For some students it inhibits, but for others the use of L1 promotes learning.


 * Self-Mediation **

The author states, that self-directed or private speech is often used by L2 learners. In the process of privatizing speech we gain control over our ability to remember, think, plan, evaluate, and learn. (Vygotsky, 1987). So, the private speech generally consists of the expressions such as “What ?”, “I can`t”, ‘Done”, etc.

The author also mentions, that people gesture when they talk to themselves and McCaffery and Ahmed`s (2000) conducted research on use of gesture in L2 private speech. According to McNeill (1992), gesture is a form of private speech that complements meaning of verbal speech. Speech and gesture are “dialectically engaged’- gesture providing imagery and speech the verbal structure to thought (McCaffery, 2000)


 * Activity Theory and Nonlinguistic Artifacts **

According to Taylor (1985) human social, physical or mental activities always have a specific motive and goal and these motives are realized in goal-directed actions under particular material conditions. Vygotsky (1978) distinguishes two viewpoints in psychology: "phenotypic" and "genotypic". According to him two students showing the same behaviors are not necessarily involved in the same activity, because their motives may differ. One can learn the language for communication, the other can learn only for satisfying the instructor's demands. Thus the learning outcomes may differ.
 * Activity Theory **


 * Tasks **

Foley (1991) states that task-based learning is an "enabling process" that gives learners the chance to realize their action as "linguistically constituted beings".


 * Technology **

According to Thorne (1999), using L2 integrated with technology helps the learners as well as the teacher to create a stress-free environment. Interacting by chat clearly changes the nature of the activity given to the students as the rules that mediate chat discussions are very different form the rules and instructions given in the usual educational/classroom setting. Thus, this electronically mediated instruction helps and allows the learners to use their L2 creatively. Moreover, students become more dynamic and active.