English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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254 NEIL MERCERA socio-cultural perspective on classroom <strong>in</strong>teractionI now wish to relate the above discussion of language as the medium of teach<strong>in</strong>g-and-learn<strong>in</strong>gto a consideration of the quality of education.To do this, I will draw on a particular approachto human learn<strong>in</strong>g and devclopment which is known as sociocultural psycholou.This approachhas emerged dur<strong>in</strong>g the f<strong>in</strong>al dccadcs of the twentieth century from a belated appreciationof the pioneer<strong>in</strong>g research on the relationship between language and cognitive developmentcarried out by the Russian psychologist Lcv Vygotsky (for example, Vygotsky, 1962).Vygotsky worked <strong>in</strong> Moscow <strong>in</strong> the 1920s and 30s, <strong>in</strong> an <strong>in</strong>stitution for children who hadspecial educational needs, but his ideas on the process of teach<strong>in</strong>g and learn<strong>in</strong>g have muchbroader educational relevance than the specific <strong>in</strong>stitutional sett<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> which he put them<strong>in</strong>to practice. Vygotsky gave language a special, important role <strong>in</strong> human cognitivedevelopment, describ<strong>in</strong>g human <strong>in</strong>dividuals and their societies as be<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>ked by language<strong>in</strong>to a historical, cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>g, dynamic, <strong>in</strong>teractive, spiral of change. Led by the example ofJerome Bruner (1 985,1986), a considerablc body of research has now emerged which USCSa ‘neo-Vygotskian’ , socio-cultural perspective <strong>in</strong> the analysis of educational processes. Someof the most significant and dist<strong>in</strong>ctive implications of adopt<strong>in</strong>g a socio-cultural perspectiveon classroom education are, I belicvc, as follows:<strong>Language</strong> is our most important pedagogic tool. Although they do not necessarily make thisexplicit, I suggest that the most <strong>in</strong>fluential socio-cultural theorists of cognitivedevelopment (as represented by such as Bruner, 1986; Wertsch, 1991 ; Rogoff, 1990)ascribe three important functions to language: (a) as a cognitive tool whose acquisitionenables children to ga<strong>in</strong>, process, organize and evaluate knowledge; (b) as a culturaltool, by which knowlcdge is shared, stored and made available to successivegenerations; (c) as a pedagogic tool by which <strong>in</strong>tellectual guidance is provided tochildren by other peoplc.Thcsc roles are <strong>in</strong>extricably <strong>in</strong>tertw<strong>in</strong>ed. To this specificationof the roles of language we might add the comment: learn<strong>in</strong>g how to use languageeffectively as a cultural tool is an important educational goal for native speakers aswell as second language learners. So language is both the tool for carry<strong>in</strong>g outteach<strong>in</strong>g-and-learn<strong>in</strong>g and also that which is meant to be learnt and taught.Education is a dialogical, cultural process. The development of students’ knowledge andunderstand<strong>in</strong>g is shaped by their relationships with teachers and other students, andby the culture <strong>in</strong> which those relationships are located. (Newman, Griff<strong>in</strong> and Cole,1989; Gee, 1996).The educational success students achieve is only partly under theirown control, and only partly under the control of their teachers. This is where thesociocultural concept of ‘scaffold<strong>in</strong>g’, which I mentioned briefly earlier, is useful .Theessence of this concept, as developed by Bruner (1986), Wood (1988) and others, isthat an effective teacher provides the k<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>in</strong>tellectual support which enableslearners to make <strong>in</strong>tellectual achievements they would never accomplish alone; andone way they do $0 is by us<strong>in</strong>g dialogue to guide and support the development ofunderstand<strong>in</strong>g.<strong>Language</strong> carries the history .f classroom activity <strong>in</strong>to <strong>its</strong> future. The socio-culturalperspective suggests that if we want to understand the proccss of learn<strong>in</strong>g, we muststudy not only what a learner does but also the activities of parents, teachers, peerswho create ~ <strong>in</strong>deed, constitute - the dynamic context of their learn<strong>in</strong>g experience(Edwards and Mercer, 1987; Hicks, 1996). Rogoff (1990) talks of children be<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> a process of ‘guided participation’ <strong>in</strong> thc <strong>in</strong>tellectual life of theircommunitieq, which implies the neccssary <strong>in</strong>volvement of others. For similar reasons,