Vygotsky and Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The far-reaching infl uence that the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) has had on second language acquisition (SLA) research is refl ected in studies which emphasize the important role played by semiotic mediation in social interaction within social, cultural, physical, and historical contexts. While Vygotsky did not write extensively about SLA per se, he did provide a foundation for SLA research through his analysis of the development of mental systems as humans acquire and develop the ability to communicate through language. His study of the interrelationship between thinking processes, those involved in perceiving, processing, organizing, and storing information from the environment and using it to guide action, and language processes, those involved in using signs/symbols to make and communicate meaning in social interaction, provides a foundation for understanding the interrelationship between thinking and language processes involved in communicating meaning in a second language. The system of meaning created by the unifi cation of thinking and language processes was at the center of Vygotsky's work and constitutes the foundation upon which rise the concepts for which he is best known, including the zone of proximal development, social interaction, sign/symbol use to mediate activity and the consequent development of higher psychological processes, inner and private speech, play, and the role of the social/cultural/ historical situation of development. Many researchers use these concepts to guide their investigations into aspects of second language development. Not as well known is the fact that Vygotsky used the concept system of meaning to study the development of the human psyche by analyzing higher psychical processes such as logical memory, voluntary atten-tion, and verbal perception in relationship to language use and development. Analyzing mental systems to reveal the origins and development of human consciousness was the central focus for Vygotsky's decade-long research. He conceived of consciousness as a system of systems, and began his investigation of consciousness by analyzing the system of meaning created through the unifi cation of thinking and language processes. In spite of its centrality, the system of meaning has not been widely explored in second language research informed by sociocultural theory, or in sociocultural studies in general. This entry describes Vygotsky's analysis of the system that results from and in turn develops language use, and then describes how this analysis illuminates the processes involved in SLA and development. A fundamental concept for sociocultural studies is the role signs/symbols play in the mediation of human activity. " Vygotsky's fundamental theoretical insight is that the higher forms of human mental activity are always and everywhere mediated by symbolic means " (Lantolf, 1994, p. 418). Vygotsky acknowledged that mediation was central to his theor-etical analysis, but at a meeting with his closest collaborators near the end of his life, he reiterated that the focus of their work was not mediation in and of itself but rather the internal system of meaning created through mediated social interaction. He acknowledged