MEDIATED DEVELOPMENT: PROMOTING L2 CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INTERPSYCHOLOGICAL ACTIVITY
Open Access
- Author:
- Infante, Paolo
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 11, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Edward Poehner, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Matthew Edward Poehner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
James Lantolf, Committee Member
Ning Yu, Committee Member
Jamie Myers, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory
ESL Writing
Curriculum and Instruction - Abstract:
- In the evolution of the foreign/second language (L2) acquisition field, frequent appeals have been made to change the composition of L2 grammar curriculum and instruction (Lally, 1998; Larsen & Freeman, 2015). These calls have had limited impact on curricular and instructional practices in the teaching of L2 grammar (Mitchell et al., 2013). The gap is particularly pronounced in the area of ESL education where there is a need to develop learner understanding and use of formal grammatical systems that treats learner communicative needs as its starting point (Folse, 2009; Bunch, 2013; Mitchell et al., 2013). Accounts of L2 features of English grammar have been predominantly informed by explanations rooted in structural linguistics (Mitchell et al., 2013). Lantolf (2011) notes that absent from explanations of L2 features are meaning-focused visuals and graphic representations. Together with these concerns over L2 English grammar materials has been calls for revisiting the forms of dialogic support offered to English learners (ELs) when engaged in tasks like L2 English writing (Bunch, 2013; Larsen-Freeman, 2015). In order to address the interrelated curricular and instructional needs that exist within L2 education, more broadly, and, in ESL education, more specifically, this dissertation will approach the gap in L2 pedagogy with a Vygotskian praxis-orientation that combines both theory and practice into a dialectical partnership (Lantolf & Poehner, 2014). The dissertation integrates both symbolic and dialogic forms of mediation (Vygotsky, 1987) to promote L2 participant development of the English tense-aspect system. The symbolic mediation, or pedagogical instrument, implemented in this study consists of visual and physical materials that are informed by research in Cognitive Linguistics (CL). The pedagogical materials were embedded in a curriculum that encompasses accompanying practice activities that were organized and structured according to the principles of Systemic Theoretical Instruction (STI). Using an interactional framework referred to by Poehner & Infante (2015, 2016) as Mediated Development (MD), attention and analysis is primarily devoted to studying mediator-participant joint functioning (i.e. interpsychological activity) that rendered the symbolic tool, a tool-for-thinking. Analysis attempts to show how MD worked in the service of an L2 STI program to promote specific cognitive functions that introduced participants to new ways of thinking about the focal L2 concept. Analysis of mediator-participant interaction strongly suggests that interpsychological activity supported participant contingent cognitive and emotive needs and transformed the pedagogical materials into a tool-for-thinking that participants successfully employed in their L2 English writing.