Vygotsky's Second Language Learning Theory

Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's names are often associated with constructivism school of thought. For Piaget, "learning is a developmental process that involves change , self-regulation, and construction, each building on prior learning experiences"(Kaufman,2004, p.304).However, for Vygotsky(1978),"children's thinking and meaning-making is socially constructed and merges out of their social interactions with their environment"( Kaufman,2004, p.304).Vygotsky's views were given extra attention in the 1990s by an interest to apply his learning theory to the second language learning(SLL) context(Myles & Mitchell, 2004). Since 1980s, the most prominent figure who advocated the relevance of scocio-cultural theory to SLL has been James Lantlof (Lantlof,

In collaborative dialogue, individuals use language to reflect on language use. Swain, Brooks, and Tocalli-Beller (2002), in a review of the studies regarding peer–peer dialogues which occur during speaking, listening, reading, and writing task, suggested that peer–peer collaborative dialogue mediates second language learning. Nevertheless, one of the greatest challenges in second or foreign language learning is how to engage students in peer–peer dialogues in the classrooms. Although emphasis on group-work skills and collaborative learning practices has recently increased in educational settings, little attention is paid to learners’ collaborative efforts of problem solving and knowledge building in listening comprehension context. Moreover

Little is known about the impact of the co-regulation and discussion on listening comprehension improvement. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to explore the educational functions of peer–peer collaborative activities on students' listening comprehension development. The focus will be on the effect of students' attention to their own and each other’s available knowledge (discussion) on their listening comprehension performance. This study is conducted within the framework of a sociocultural theory, particularly

According to Donato (2004), collaboration refers to ‘‘a powerful concept that moves us beyond reductive input–output models of interaction and acknowledges the importance of goals, the mutuality of learning in activity, and collective human relationships” (pp. 299–230). Within sociocultural framework, language learning is considered to emerge from social mediation and collaborative activity. Accordingly, the sociocultural approach focuses more on the dialogic and dynamic nature of peer–peer interaction. Collaborative dialogue proposed by Swaine shade more light on peer–peer collaboration and its impact on language