CC BY
2SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS VOLUME 4 I ISSUE 3 I 2023 _ISSN: 2181-1601
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF 2022=5.016) Passport: http://sjifactor.com/passport.php?id=22257
SOME VIEWS ON SOCIOCULTURAL THEORIES IN LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
Nilufar Esanovna Xamdamova Aziza Erkin qizi Ergasheva
Master student of the UzSWLU Student of the Gul SU
ABSTRACT
Sociocultural theories have been explored in the context of early childhood English language learning among young English language learners. The social environment is not the background for, but rather the cause of, mental growth and the complex interplay between the person working with mediational methods and the sociocultural context, according to a range of sociocultural views chosen for the research.
Keywords: sociocultural theories, childhood education, language acquisition, psychologists and psycholinguists, interconnected cognitive and social qualities, social processes.
Introduction. Sociocultural theories (SCT), created by Lev Vygotsky in the 1920s and 1930s, characterize human cognition as it develops via participation in social and cultural activities with other people, objects, and events. Language acquisition (LA) of English language learners (ELLs) in Uzbek early childhood education originates from the process of meaning-making in collaborative action with other members of a particular culture [14]. According to Lantolf [4], sociocultural theories are not theories of social and cultural features, but rather theories of mind that recognise the significant role of social connections and culturally built objects in organizing human forms of thinking in a unique way. While most theories of mind acknowledge the presence of a social environment in which cognition develops, Vygotsky argued for the social milieu's uniqueness [4]. According to Vygotsky, sociocultural contexts are the major and determinant element in the formation of higher kinds of human mental activity.
Methods. Sociocultural theories have been extended to a wide number of domains including language acquisition. Language acquisition (LA) is concerned with how individuals acquire a language other than their native language. Saville-Troike [10] defined foriegn language acquisition as the study of individuals or groups who are learning a language subsequent to learning their first one as young children. LA has emerged as a field of study primarily from within linguistics and psychology, which emphasises the mental and cognitive processes involved in language acquisition apart from other fields such as linguistics and sociolinguistics [10] Sociocultural theories in
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS VOLUME 4 I ISSUE 3 I 2023 _ISSN: 2181-1601
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF 2022=5.016) Passport: http://sjifactor.com/passport.php?id=22257
language acquisition research offer a framework through which human cognition can be systematically investigated without isolating it from social context [4, 8].
Research. LA has been addressed by psychologists and psycholinguists from many angles throughout the last few decades. One of these approaches is cognitive behavioural therapy, which holds that language acquisition takes place through a sequence of stimuli and reactions and that all learning is the formation of habit as a result of reinforcement [1]. Skinner, a leading behaviourist, claimed that language is a verbal behaviour. Language learners can be made to produce and comprehend language if they are being reinforced to do so. The behaviorists believe that second langauge learners imitate what they hear and develop habits in the second language by routine practice [10]. As a behaviourist perspective focuses on observable behaviour, this theory neglects mental processes involved when a child acquires a language [1]. In addition, there has been a critic that imitation does not help the learner in real-life situations [2, 11].
An alternative perspective to behaviourism, led by Noam Chomsky [2], focuses on cognitivism and critiques Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour. Chomsky, a cognitivist, claimed that humans are born with a genetic aptitude that predisposes them to systematic awareness of language around them, leading in the building of an internalized language system. Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a mechanism that, according to Chomsky's idea, just has to be activated by the linguistic environment in order to begin acting. Language learning, according to Chomsky, is a whole mental process. According to the cognitive viewpoint, second language learners utilize their cognition skills imaginatively to figure out the second language on their own. For example, the learners notice a pattern and construct their own rules accordingly, then go back and change the rules if they are faulty. In this approach to SLA, the learners benefit from their mistakes because they are playing an active role in the FLL process and learning first-hand how the language works. However, cognition is not the only factor that learners use to make assumptions about a language [11]. It has been viewed that some errors learners make are based on rules of the first language; they are influenced by these rules as opposed to coming to conclusions based on their cognitive abilities. Another problem is that it is not always possible to deduce what the FL learner meant to say, and therefore the error cannot be clearly determined. However, cognitive perspectives focusing on learning as an individual mental event ignore social processes
[3, 1].
Analysis. Based on Vygotskian sociocultural theories, another perspective on language learning displays the interconnected cognitive and social qualities. There has been a huge surge in LA research that is informed by sociocultural ideas during the last decade. In the mid-1980s, Frawley and Lantoff began investigating the possible
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS VOLUME 4 I ISSUE 3 I 2023 _ISSN: 2181-1601
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF 2022=5.016) Passport: http://sjifactor.com/passport.php?id=222ff7
applicability of sociocultural theories for second language learning. The authors were initially interested in investigating how second language speakers used their new language as a mediation while performing difficult tasks and how second language learners developed the ability to use their new language as a mediation their mental and communicative ability [8]. Since then, a great deal of research that is directly or indirectly informed by sociocultural theories has been carried out in the language acquisition discipline.
Conclusion. Sociocultural theories vary fundamentally from other viewpoints on language acquisition in that they believe that the social environment is the source of mental growth rather than the backdrop for it Unlike other viewpoints, which focus on a person and what the individual does, SCT considers the intricate interplay between the individual acting via mediation and the sociocultural milieu. In other words, sociocultural theories emphasize what tools a person uses, where the action occurs, and why the individual acts. Reference:
1. Aimin, L. (2013). The study of second language acquisition under socio-cultural theory. American Journal of Educational Research, 1(5), 162-167.
2. Hamdamov. E. E. The content of the language professional-gnostic training of an English teacher. Bulletin of Gulistan State University, 2021
3. Ergashevich, H. E. . (2022). Bo'Lajak Ingliz Tili O'Qituvchisining Kasbiy-Gnostik Kompetensiyasi Va Uning Didaktik Ahamiyati. Miasto Przyszlosci, 25, 302-304. Retrieved from https://miastoprzyszlosci.com.pl/index.php/mp/article/view/378
4. Chomsky, N. (1959). Verbal behaviour: A review. Language, 35(1), 26-58. Retrieved from inner.pdf.
5. Lantolf, J. P. (2001). Sociocultural theory and SLA. In R. B. Kaplan. (Ed.), Handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 109-119). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
6. Lantolf, J. P., & Thorne, S. L. (2006a). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
7. Lantolf, J. P., & Thorne, S.L. (2007). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. In Bill B.
8. Van Patten & W. Jessica (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction (pp. 693-701). New York, NY: Routledge.
9. Saville-Troike, M. (2012). Introducing second language acquisition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
10. Swain, M. & Deters, P. (2007). New mainstream SLA theory: Expanded and enriched. The Modern Language Journal, 91(1), 820-836.
11. Vygotsky. L. S. (1978). Mind in the society: The development of higher psychological process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
