1. Vygotsky redefined children’s cognitive and thinking development occurs through a social process. The social interaction is fundamentally based on spoken language by adults around the children. In the interaction, children control and interact with the environment using cultural tools such as languages. That is, these tools mediate individuals and social situation, and learning happens. Also, Vygotsky proposed an important concept called Zone of Proximal Development. It refers to the area between where children do tasks by themselves and where they need help from adults to achieve higher level tasks that they can’t do alone. Within this zone, children learn and as the result development occurs through social activities with adults. Until Vygotskian sociocultural theory appeared, SLA had been only focused on learners’ internal mechanism of their language development. However, the theory’s perspective made an opening to consider an external mechanism for language development, for example, the Interaction Hypothesis or Output Hypothesis. Without this perspective, the current communicative learning idea would not have appeared.
2. Identity Theory respecifies that identities of L2 learners are socially constructed, contradicted, and changer over time and space. Also, L2 learners are struggling for establishing their identity and they must negotiate their position in the L2 society or community. In other words, identity research in SLA theorizes the social as the site of
According to Vygotsky, the basis for learning lies within social interaction and communication. It is when a child is able to communicate, either verbally or non-verbally, that they understand the world around them through copying and internalizing new concepts. An example of this is what Vygotsky called cooperative or collaborative dialogue, when a “more knowledgeable other” assists the learner with a task. Although it sounds like a relatively basic idea, other psychologists at the time, notably Piaget, placed the source of learning within the person and not related to the people around them. As Orlando Lourenco illustrated in the article “Piaget and Vygotsky: Many resemblances, and a crucial difference,” the key difference between the two leading psychologists of the early twentieth century was the importance of the surroundings of the child.
It is part of the learning process. The theorist Piaget believes in order for children to establish development in order to learn, they must know how to process, absorb, and organize information within (existing) Simodj information. Rather having to process information already acknowledge, Vygotsky theory believes children be able to respond in order to obtain development. Both theorist will agree over certain period of time children will understand cognitive strategies and different learning styles that indicated whether it is working for them or not going through stages of
After carefully reading the well-written pieces on identity, I believe the main subject is the change of identity. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word identity is, “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.” Along the way, individuals experience setbacks with the disconnection of themselves and others. For example, in Alfred Lubrano’s piece of writing, he explains his personal struggle between balancing college education and family. “At night at home, the difference in the Columbia experiences my father and I were having was becoming more evident.
Identity speaks of who we are as individuals but it also comes from two different groups: social and cultural. These groups are connected to power, values and ideology. Social identities are related to how we interact with people and how we present ourselves. Meanwhile cultural identities relate to society in whole such as religion, values, etc. In this paper I will talk about the dominant and subordinate identities.
Based on Vygotski’s Zone of Proximal Development, students will be able to take what they know and the skills they possess to learn and master other skills through guidance. This can be seen on day two of the learning segment when students use their skills to complete a primary source analysis and then work on improving their potential skills of building and justifying conclusions. This activity is also backed by Vygotski’s Sociocultural theory since students will collaborate in groups to promote social interaction and individual
Vygotsky believed in the use of language and play in the cognitive
Piaget used a clinical method, in order to seek his theory of cognitive development. This allowed Piaget to understand how children and adolescents learn. On the other hand, Vygotsky used tangible items like stories, paper, and writing utensils to determine how the society would move forward. An educational difference from Vygotsky is that parents, teachers, and other adults has having an impact on how children learn and grow. However, Piaget found that
I agree with and will use Vygotsky belief that language is a way for children to exchange ideas with adults and their peers and that it is vital for cognitive development. Also Vygotsky theory that I found useful is that social activities provide the seeds from which complex cognitive processes can
Conversely, Vygotsky disputed that the culture in which a person lives also plays a substantial part in cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that a child’s cognitive development was stimulated by the interaction of the child and its social environment (Vygotsky, 1987). Vygotsky also believed that children’s use of speech also influenced their cognitive abilities (Martin, Carlson & Buskist, 2010). Vygotsky stated that language was the basis for cognitive development, including the ability to remember, solve problems, make decisions and formulate plans (Martin, Carlson & Buskist, 2010). Studies have shown that children who use speech when met with difficult tasks are more focussed and show better improvement in cognitive performance then those who are less talkative (Behrend et al., 1992).
Identity is social construct that many have mistaken for something an individual is born with. There are many aspects of identity that one can inherit like genes that can drive a certain type of character and certain aspects of identity a person can adopt and build for themselves. However the most part of one’s identity is consistent of what the person wants and adopts for themselves and what the society/the people around him/her choose to give him/her. Identity is a said to not remain unchanged once established.
As for Piaget, interaction with peers is more effective than those with people carrying higher skills and capabilities. The reason is that peers’ ability is almost equivalent with each other. So that it is not stressful for people to express different views. Consequently, cognitive development is promoted by interaction with peers through cognitive conflicts. On the contrary, cognitive development is motivated by interaction with people such as teachers and parents in Vygotsky’s theory (Vygotsky,1978).
Besides the above concepts, Vygotsky points out that language plays a key role in children’s thought forming. He believes thought is result of language
This is referred to the interactionist theory. “Similar to the behaviorist theory, the interactionist theory believes that nurture is crucial in the process of language development. Though, the interactionist perspective differs from the behaviorist
Crain and Lillo-Martin state that “language is not a concrete set of things out in the world that we can point out to or measure rather; it is something inside our brains and minds”. The LAD in a child’s mind will eventually help the child to make sense of the language that develops through social interactions and experience. The LAD within the child’s brain makes it easy for them to understand the language. This claim is in coherence with Bruner (1957) who claims that, “Children are not little grammarians, motivated to decode the syntax of the language around them through the operation of their LAD, but social beings who acquire language in the service of their needs to communicate with others”. I second this statement because I believe that the acquisition of language is innate but the development of the language is parallel with what the child’ experiences and social interaction with their family, school, society.
Identity construction and the role of discourse as well as the participation in the communities of practice led Wells to Lave's argument considering the notion of "crafting identities" and the concept of "knowing". The process of social practice and the acquisition of knowledge concerning social skills are crucial in identity formation. What's more, Lave's argument points out that the new identities essentially and radically form an already obtained knowledge. He also highlights the fact of "knowing rather than acquiring or accumulating knowledge or information" (Wells, 2007, p.101) In other words, the act of doing expressed through engagement in a variety of new communities of practice proves to be more valuable and essential rather than the