Steven, Phil and other SLA advocates. Perhaps we can make this line of work
one thread in the
online CHAT class I am scheuling for December-March next year. As you can
see, between the
play discussion upcoming (see papers on xmca papers for discussion) and
discussion of an
article from MCA (see xmca discussions) I expect we will be struggling
simply to pay attention
to that and always-emerging other topics for the next several weeks.
mike
On Apr 7, 2005 12:27 AM, Steven Thorne <sthorne@psu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> hi Phil and all -- there is indeed a strong and growing strand of applied
> and cognitive linguistics/SLA work rooted in vygotskian and chat frameworks.
> a colleague (jim lantolf) and i are finishing up a book length manuscript
> for OUP on this very theme. as you note, our group here in the US has been
> active, but as you correctly mention, most of our stuff has been
> praxiological, but not explicitly pedagogical (though of course we strive to
> "ascend to the concrete"!). in our forthcoming volume, we're trying to
> address this through some chapters that look specifically at concept
> development and the role of mediation, artifacts, and forms of participation
> that might foster the conditions of possibility (to rob a line from
> foucault) for learning, and potentially, development (i won't parse these
> terms here other than to revisit vygotsky's notion that learning precedes
> development, and development, especially in late-modern post-vygotskian
> theorizing, involves resolutions to contradictions > reorganization of
> mental processes > the dialectical becoming of a new kind of person
> (possibly in domain specific environments/performances).
>
> lastly, i was a member of the old xlchc some years ago and only in the
> past week or so resubscribed -- why it took me so long is a mystery! but i'm
> very happy to be back.
>
> steve
>
> *Sorry, All to open a counter-thread, but I have been doing some back
> reading of reviews etc, and came across this intriguing section of a review
> of a book devoted to second language (SL) learning and linguistic form and
> meaning (see below). I was intrigued by this section of the review
> (background: the field of SL "acquisition" is still dominated by
> psycholinguistic theories stemming from Chomskyian linguistic theory and
> conduit metaphors of communication, see Reddy's work of three decades ago).
> Like some others (both active and passive list members, based on the member
> list Mike mentioned earlier), I have been living the contradiction between
> the dominant platform in SL research and the one(s) that are more
> semiotically based and focused on human interaction and development. But
> should we always be in a position where we do not "fully agree" with the
> prevailing hegemonic views on aspects of human development when we have such
> exciting "counter views" based on the interests of many on this list? Views
> which have spurned their own debates between, for example, the strong
> socio-semiotic and interventionist, though somewhat inaccessible theories of
> the Australian SFL group based on Halliday, Martin, etc; the exciting group
> within the US that bases its work on sociocultural theory, albeit criticised
> for downplaying pedagogy (Lantolf, Wells, Thorne, Kramsch, etc); and the
> group of educational sociologists in the UK that have expanded and made more
> accessible the works of, for example, Bernstein. Apologies for the
> geographical divides here, but I am sure it is a little less in your face
> than religious analogies.*
>
> *
> *
>
> *I'm young in this academic game, and I'd love some pointers on ways to
> foster cross-talk rather than cross!-talk.*
>
> *
> *
>
> *Phil Chappell*
>
> *
> *
>
>
> --
>
> Steven L. Thorne
> Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
> Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
> and
> Communication Arts and Sciences
> Associate Director, Center for Language Acquisition
> Associate Director, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and
> Research
> The Pennsylvania State University
> Interact > 814.863.7036 | sthorne@psu.edu |
> http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/ | IM: avkrook
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun May 01 2005 - 01:00:06 PDT