Sociocultural Theory and the Pedagogical Imperative in L2 Education ─ Vygotskian Praxis and the Research/Practice Divide

From its inception in the early 1970s the field of second language acquisition has struggled to overcome the dichotomy between theory/research on the one hand and classroom practice on the other. Rejecting the dichotomy between theory and practice that dominates SLA and language teaching, this book proposes an approach based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, according to which the two activities are inherently connected so that each is necessarily rooted in the other. From the perspective of language education, this is what is meant by the ‘pedagogical imperative.'

Features:

• Elaborates a completely new approach to dealing with the relationship between theory and practice—an approach grounded in praxis
• Presents an analysis of empirical research illustrating praxis-based principles in real language classrooms rather than controlled experimental settings
• Brings together cognitive linguistics and sociocultural theory - the former provides the theoretical knowledge of language required of praxis and the latter furnishes the theoretical principles of learning and development also called for in a praxis approach.
• Offers recommendations for redesigning teacher education programs

James P. Lantolf is the Greer Professor in Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Penn State University.

Matthew E. Poehner is Assistant Professor and Director of the K-12 teacher certification program in world languages in the College of Education at Penn State University.