What’s in a ZPD? A case study of a young ESL student and teacher interacting through dialogue journals

Aiming to provide a case-study account of features of the ZPD (zone of proximal development) in language teaching and learning, we analysed 95 exchanges in interactive dialogue journals written over 10 months between a 6-year-old Farsi speaker beginning to learn English and his Canadian teacher. Using a scheme of language functions developed by Shuy (1993), we show how the teacher and student constructed and sustained a long-term written conversation involving intricate patterns of complementary, asymmetrical scaffolding. We interpret the findings to suggest the value of analysing language learning and teaching as integrally unified, interactive phenomena. We suggest questions worthy of future research into features of the ZPD in language teaching and learning.

[1]  K. W. Hunt.  Syntactic maturity in schoolchildren and adults. , 1970, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[2]  Helen L. Jorstad,et al.  French in Eight Countries@@@The Teaching of French as a Foreign Language in Eight Countries , 1977 .

[3]  J. Bruner,et al.  The role of tutoring in problem solving. , 1976, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[4]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[5]  Michael H. Long.  Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input1 , 1983 .

[6]  J. Bruner.  Play, thought and language , 1986 .

[7]  Carole Urzua,et al.  "You stopped too soon" : Second language children composing and revising , 1987 .

[8]  Elaine Tarone,et al.  Variation In Interlanguage , 1988 .

[9]  Joy Kreeft Peyton,et al.  Dialogue Journal Communication: Classroom, Linguistic, Social, and Cognitive Views , 1988 .

[10]  Craig Chaudron,et al.  Second Language Classrooms. Research on Teaching and Learning. , 1988 .

[11]  Denis Newman,et al.  The Construction Zone: Working for Cognitive Change in School , 1989 .

[12]  G. Wells.  Talk about Text: Where Literacy is Learned and Taught , 1990 .

[13]  J. Lemke.  Talking Science: Language, Learning, and Values , 1990 .

[14]  J. Wertsch.  Voices of the Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action , 1992 .

[15]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[16]  Clive Perdue,et al.  Adult language acquisition : cross-linguistic perspectives , 1993 .

[17]  F. Newman,et al.  Lev Vygotsky : revolutionary scientist , 1993 .

[18]  Bonnie Adair-Hauck,et al.  Foreign Language Explanations without the Zone of Proximal Development. , 1994 .

[19]  Rod Ellis,et al.  The Study of Second Language Acquisition , 1994 .

[20]  J. Lantolf,et al.  Negative Feedback as Regulation and Second Language Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development , 1994 .

[21]  Anne Haas Dyson,et al.  Social Worlds of Children Learning to Write in an Urban Primary School , 1994 .

[22]  Steven G. Mccafferty.  Adult Second Language Learners' Use of Private Speech: A Review of Studies , 1994 .

[23]  James P. Lantolf,et al.  Vygotskian Approaches to Second Language Research , 1994 .

[24]  J. Lantolf,et al.  Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Acquisition , 1995, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[25]  Olga S. Villamil,et al.  Peer Revision in the L2 Classroom: Social-Cognitive Activities, Mediating Strategies, and Aspects of Social Behavior. , 1996 .

[26]  Joy Kreeft Peyton,et al.  Dialogue Journals in the Multilingual Classroom: Building Language Fluency and Writing Skills Through Written Interaction , 1996 .

[27]  Dennis R. Preston.  Variationist Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition , 1996 .

[28]  Michael H. Long.  The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition , 1996 .

[29]  S. McDonough.  Second Language Learning: Theoretical Foundations , 1996 .

[30]  D. Ferris,et al.  Teacher commentary on student writing: Descriptions & implications , 1997 .

[31]  N. Minick,et al.  Contexts for learning , 1997 .

[32]  B. MacWhinney.  Second language acquisition and the competition model , 1997 .

[33]  Merril Swain,et al.  Collaborative dialogue: its contribution to second language learning , 1997 .

[34]  Emma Marsden,et al.  Second Language Learning Theories , 1998 .

[35]  Desmond Allison,et al.  Investigating learners’ course diaries as explorations of language , 1998 .

[36]  Gordon Wells,et al.  Using L1 to Master L2: A Response to Antón and DiCamilla's 'Socio-Cognitive Functions of L1 Collaborative Interaction in the L2 Classroom' , 1998 .

[37]  J. Lantolf,et al.  Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and Krashen's i+1: Incommensurable Constructs; Incommensurable Theories , 1998 .

[38]  W. Klein.  The Contribution of Second Language Acquisition Research , 1998 .

[39]  Alister Cumming,et al.  Theoretical Perspectives on Writing , 1998, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[40]  M. Swain,et al.  A Vygotskian Perspective on Corrective Feedback in L2: The Effect of Random Versus Negotiated Help on the Learning of English Articles , 2000 .