I was told (by one of my former
professors) that Vygotsky is considered a contextualist because he theorizes
according to the metaphore of the Contextualism model, which is the
"historical event." The context for these people is historical, social and
cultural. Does that make sense?
Sure it makes sense. But does it come from LSV or is it being read into LSV (to
ask a no-no question in this interpretivist world!). Word meaning is the unit
of analysis the LSV proposes for understanding the developmental relationship
between language and thought.
I guess I ought to be very clear that in my opinion, LSV can legitmately be
included as a contextualist, but I am interested in where in his writings he
can be said to write on the topic. Initially I did NOT interpret him as
a contextualist (based on limited reading, to be sure, but then my reading is
still limited which is why asking the question seemed a good idea!). I thought
he posited general stage-like changes. There is a paper trail for my musings
and those of others, but what about LSV himself?
thanks again
mike