CC BY
16
DOI: 10.18454/RULB.6.14 Чернова Н.А.1, Мустафина Д.Н.2
1,2Набережночелнинский институт Казанского (Поволжского) Федерального университета
ПРОБЛЕМА ПОВЫШЕНИЯ АКТИВНОСТИ ОБУЧАЮЩИХСЯ КАК ПРОЯВЛЕНИЕ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ МЕЖДУ КУЛЬТУРНО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ТЕОРИЕЙ И ОВЛАДЕНИЕМ ИНОСТРАННЫМ ЯЗЫКОМ
Аннотация
Цель статьи заключается в том, чтобы выделить ключевые понятия субъекта, его сущности, становления и развития, представляющие особую важность для понимания взглядов Л.С. Выготского, который считает, что познание неразрывно связано с речемыслительной деятельностью и, в силу этого, представляет собой «отражение действительности», как бы преломленное через призму языковых значений. В результате, сотрудничество со старшим по возрасту или более опытным приводит к развитию саморегуляции, а именно, способности к самостоятельному решению проблем и самоуправлению. Изучение языка с использованием культурно-исторической теории и ее принципов в качестве основы позволяет создать на занятиях такое «участие» при котором зона ближайшего развития студента ясно определяется с помощью таких методов как «ролевая игра» и «неподготовленный диалог».
Ключевые слова: познавательная деятельность, овладение иностранным языком, социокультурный аспект, зона ближайшего развития, саморазвитие, неподготовленный диалог, метакогнитивная стратегия.
Chernova N.A.1, Mustafina J.N.2
1,2Naberezhnochelninsky Institute of Kazan (Volga region) Federal University
THE PROBLEM OF ENCOURAGING EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AS A WAY OF INVESTIGATING SOME INTERPLAY BETWEEN SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to outline the core concepts of a subject intension, molding and development, being also important to understanding Vygotsky's view of cognitive development who clearly suggests that it is inseparably linked with speech intellectual activity and because of it is reality reflection as if refracted in the light of linguistic meaning. As a result, communicative collaboration with adults or peers that are more skilled contributes to the development of self-regulation, that is, the capacity for independent problem solving and self-directed activity. Using sociocultural theory and its tenets as a framework, we would see a highly interactive language classroom, where the students' zone of proximal development is identified through such strategies as "portfolios ", and "dialogue journals ".
Keywords: : cognitive activity, SLA - second language acquisition, sociocultural domain, zone of proximal development, self-development, linguistically unlimited task, metacognitive strategy.
Почта авторов / Author Email: natalchern@gmail.com, muss_jane@mail.ru
The investigations of a great number of psychologists are devoted to the understanding of thinking, which is being constructed with words, thus any language is the principal mediational means, and that human learning and development are inherently based on the foundation of social relations. The main idea of the article is to estimate classroom interactions and the foreign language acquisition in the groups where the studies are being held based on the English Language Textbook for Russian Learners by Chernova N.A., Kuznetsova Z.M. The textbook [2] was compiled so that actual classroom practice allowed relating human mental functioning to the cultural, institutional, and historical settings. A foreign language is a tool, which is available through participation in societal contexts. Overcoming the dichotomy between the individual and the social in language acquisition studies helps to make use of the interpretive tools of sociocultural theory, to investigate the dynamics of foreign language acquisition. Thus, the authors try to show how sociocultural theory can begin to unravel the difficulties of instructional interactions in a classroom.
The background to the classroom investigation is provided by five standard theories of language acquisition, such as correlational studies, case studies, survey research, experimental research and ethnographic research with their epistemology and ontology. Taking into account Vygotskyan perspectives on learning and development, special attention should be drawn to four themes: 1) language, cognition, and communities; 2) language-based theories of learning and semiotic mediation; 3) private speech; 4) activity theory. In English Second Language (ESL) classes, the author recorded and transcribed interactions and analyzed whether they stay close to the discourse [6]. Attendance of the classes provides an opportunity to observe and notice the special complexity of the classroom through such research methods as grounded theory, biography, discourse, ethnographies, case studies, narrative inquiry, and analysis. Every opportunity was used in the process of compiling the above-mentioned Textbook in order to show how sociocultural theory can be helpful in better understanding the instructional completeness of the foreign and second language classroom events, including the discursive interactions.
As far as J. Smith concerns the private speech in the study, he applies this concept to direct instruction during grammar lesson in an ESL class. J. Smith's study contributes significantly to understanding the intersubjective nature of teaching, to realizing connection between speaking and thinking, and pedagogical importance of thinking mediation through student's private speech
in the process of the problem-solving talk [7]. The English Language Textbook is intended for the students specializing in the field of "Sociocultural Service and Tourism". The author paid special attention to including some tasks, provoking all (private and social) speech in a dialogical context because overt speech in the social context of problem solving is made public for both the speaker and the hearer. Especially, in the frames of this specialty, when incomprehensible utterances can serve as a cognitive tool for mediating and navigating a tourist and a manager to eventual shared understandings and problem solutions.
A group of scientists regards Instructional Conversations as a mediational tool for ESL development (D. Wood, J. S. Bruner, and G. Ross) [8]. The whole idea is based on Vygotsky's supposition that the origins of learning, development, and human action comes back to conversation and the semiotic mediation that those provide the novice. Vygotsky's instrumental method in the form of Instructional Conversations comprises two important aspects of language and learning. On the interpsychological plane, any language serves as psychological tools of communication and sharing cultural meanings. On the intrapsychological plane, they affect learning and cognitive development [5]. Any experienced ESL teacher must be able to make a classroom episode be conversational, under the circumstances of attention to coherence, distributed turn taking, focus on new information, spontaneity and unpredictability. These conversations can be admitted instructional because the discussion is being shaped toward a curricular goal that in its turn builds or activates background knowledge in students. Instructional conversations give an opportunity of students' socializing into language learning in rich contexts in order to facilitate language growth and development. The fact of a wider range of communicative and cognitive functions of talk let students experience how language is used outside of the classroom as opposed to current models of input, output, and interaction. A longtime research fulfilled in the process of compiling a PhD scientific study let the author conclude that instructional conversations in elementary and intermediate foreign language classes emerge from time to time [4]. It is possible only in case of departure from the predictable pattern: a) management (vocabulary practice exercises); b) exercise (completing textbook exercises); c) extension (spontaneous questions and comments) [1]. The author tried to avoid the traditional, textbook-based forms of contextualized language practice, most commonly associated with foreign language classrooms while preparing the English Textbook for Russian Learners. The thing is that management talk and extension activities
are the forms of instructional conversations and not the "contextualized" exercises of the textbook. Chernova's Textbook allows the teacher to talk to the class as a co-participant in the interaction. The content presents all necessary language material and teaching techniques to conduct a pattern where the teacher responds to comments of one student, poses questions of another, and, allows for student self-selected turns [3]. To illustrate the theoretical background to the problem of ESL acquisition in practice, some experimental data received in ESL classroom are presented. The first group of learners was called "Metacognitive with Verbalization" (MV). The strategy of presenting some new material in this group comprises problem-solving talks with the help of an instructional dialogue, which is triggered through the externalization on the part of the student and the tolerant and persevering responses on the part of the teacher. The second group of learners was called "Metacognitive without Verbalization" (M). In this case, instructional conversations were omitted. The third group of learners was called "Traditional" (T) i.e. the students and
the teacher fulfill vocabulary practice exercises, complete textbook exercises and answer questions. The received data show that rapid progress in SLA is being made only when the teacher and the students departed from the traditional forms of contextualized language practice.
From a pedagogical perspective, the position argued in this article offers additional reasons for encouraging students to take part in a collaborative dialogue. It might be particularly useful for learning strategic processes as well as grammatical aspects of language. The whole process of second language learning is not presented as the acquisition of a new set of grammatical, lexical, and phonological forms but as the participation in the symbolically mediated lifeworld of another culture. Communicative collaboration with adults or peers that are more skilled contributes to the development of self-regulation, that is, the capacity for independent problem solving and self-directed activity. The following model of ESL classes is offered:
This teaching methodology is more flexible and means with support from the teacher and other learners, assume control of developing a sensitivity to students' current abilities. It let learners, their own participatory activities.
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