VYGOTSKY’S THEORY OF INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT: THE IMPLICATIONS ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Kao, Yu-ting
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 18, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Edward Poehner, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Matthew Edward Poehner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Karen E Johnson, Committee Member
Elizabeth A Smolcic, Committee Member
Xiaoye You, Committee Member - Keywords:
- sociocultural theory
concept-based instruction
dynamic assessment
teaching Chinese as a foreign language
Chinese rhetoric - Abstract:
- This dissertation utilizes Vygotskian Concept-Based Instruction (CBI) as an approach to teach Chinese rhetoric to L2 learners. CBI was developed by Piotr Gal’perin (1978a) furthered by Vladimir Davydov (1988b), and has been applied as a pedagogical approach to teaching based on the notion of conceptual mediation. Through systemic instruction, Chinese rhetorical norms will be examined from various perspectives, including culture, language, and different writing patterns. The study also applies another Vygotsky’s educational application, Dynamic Assessment (DA), to evaluate participants’ writing performance (Poehner, 2008). DA is a framework for conceptualizing teaching and assessment as an integrated activity which understands learners’ potential abilities by actively supporting their development. This study explored the effectiveness of an enrichment program that integrates CBI and DA. In particular, this study intended to examine the following: 1) any insights gained from the CBI intervention that explained the development of learners’ conceptual understanding of Chinese rhetoric; 2) the possibility of tracking and promoting learners’ abilities through DA; 3) the extent of interaction that promoted learners’ development in a group DA context; 4) the usefulness of this enrichment program for future praxis in the field of SLA. Seven L2 Chinese learners at an intermediate to advanced level participated in this 6-week enrichment program in a study abroad context. The focus of the intervention was to guide participants to learn the concept of different Chinese writing patterns and how each pattern influences the organization, placement of thesis statement, and the presentation of ideas, supporting examples and descriptions in a Chinese text. Procedures of DA were provided throughout the sessions in the form of one-on-one mediation or group mediations. A microgenetic method was utilized to analyze dialogic mediation and interaction between the teacher/researcher and learners. The aim of the program was to mediate L2 Chinese learners’ understanding of rhetoric styles, transforming their initial awareness into actual writing performances that reflect informed, intentional choices regarding their selection of particular rhetorical styles for a given composition. The findings suggest that the integration of CBI and DA has a positive impact on learning Chinese rhetoric among L2 intermediate to advanced Chinese learners. The results from learners’ materialization (i.e. learner-created SCOBAs, verbalization data, and writing products) show their conceptual development in its formation. The interactive data examined in DA reveals learners’ abilities through ways of tracking and promoting learners’ development over time. While establishing learner’s autonomy and self-regulated learning, this enrichment program also renders classroom interaction more systematic and more attuned to learners’ needs. Additionally, participants claimed positive effects of learning Chinese rhetoric through the CBI intervention and DA procedures, which provides useful insights for future implementation of CBI and DA in regular L2 classroom. It is therefore argued that the implications of this dissertation will inform not only theoretical research on the field of SLA but also pedagogical perspectives in classroom praxis.