Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning (Oxford Applied Linguistics)

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Summary: Review of Lantolf
Review: The main force behind Lantolf's book is to broaden the base of theories for second language acquisition (SLA). A major theme running through the text is the inadequacy of popular interactionist theories of SLA for explaining and describing language development, and the need for a research framework that accounts for the role of social context and collaborative dialogue. The text starts with a good overview of sociocultural theory, outlining the major aspects of the theory, including activity theory, inner/private speech and the zone of proximal development. The relevance of these areas are then discussed by a number of SLA theorists/researchers, with the aim of calling for a deeper, contextual and qualitative analysis of language learning interactions/tasks, and asserting the efficacy of sociocultural theory in facilitating and explaining effective language learning. A very readable book.