Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Acquisition: tenets and pedagogical implications in an EFL setting
The rise of sociolinguistic and contextual approaches in L2 research over the past decade reflects a growing recognition that learning a language is a more complex process than merely acquiring linguistic structures, and that language learning and use are shaped by sociopolitical approach. Although a lot of attention has been paid to linguistic and cognitive side of the issue in SLA, language socialization as a newly emerged approach does not seem to have caught the eyes of those involved in the profession of language teaching and pedagogy despite its strong theoretical supports. Learning, from perspective of sociocultural theory of mind, is not information processing carried out by individuals. It is instead, a form of language socialization between individuals who try to collaboratively co construct the type of knowledge, here language, through the process of mediation by means of language as a semiotic tool Vygotsky,s sociocultural theory has been widely referred to in the field of second language learning (SLL) research (e.g. Donato, 1994; Haas, 1996;Ohta, 2000; Swain, 2000; Warschauer Kern, 2000) Adopting sociocultural theory offers researchers theoretical perspectives with which to examine language learning as a social practice, consider students as active participants in constructing learning processes, and investigate the interaction between different factors involved. To this end, the present research, laying out language socialization as a theoretical and methodological approach in second language acquisition, aims to explore the central concepts of socioculutural theory, and to put the vast majority of key approaches and concepts in a nutshell so that the intended readers can easily get familiar with those fundamentals of language socialization as an important theoretical perspective in the field of second and foreign language acquisition. Besides, the pedagogical implications of the theory and its tenets in an EFL setting is highlighted