Summary- James P. Lantolf

Author: James P. Lantolf
Title Praxis and Classroom L2 Development
Source: ELIA: Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada. ISSN: 1576- 5059
Summary of: http://institucional.us.es/revistas/elia/8/4.Lantolf.pdf

On this summary, I will focus on the different theories provided by a great variety of lingüists and researchers; with a deep understanding of Vigotsky's theories based upon praxis and L2 Development. According to SLA research, L2 acquisition is always the same process regardless of where the process unfolds. SLA focuses on the communicative act and the direct instruction when making practices on a classroom. Larsen-Freeman and Long and Krashen agree with this theory - mentioned before. For Larsen-Freeman the key for a good learning experience is more important than structural grading, whereas for Krashen, the liability of a classroom is seen on its comprehensible contents rather than the ability of the learner. However, only one researcher argued against the UAH. In this case, is Elaine Tarone who argues that: ' the different social contexts are likely to result in different L2 grammars and, more importantly that different contexts are likely to change the way learners acquire an L2'. Contrary to the position espoused by Tarone, Vygotsky thought that education was a matter of cultural activity that restructures mental behavior. -Spontaneous unconscious-. Furthermore, he disagreed with the Piagetian psychology -already seen in Krashen's and Pienemann's theory -. For Vigotsky, instruction plays an effective role on a L2 classroom; also known as: ' the zone of proximal development '. On his work: ' The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology' exemplifies that the best pedagogical approach for learning a 2L is 'praxis' - a connection between: theory, research and practice- . As Vikotsky notes, ' scientific knowledge ' is quite similar to ' spontaneous knowledge '. For him, ' spontaneous knowledge ' is: ' empirically based ' meaning that, the learner must train through daily practice with the participation of teachers and their students. Vigotsky did not establish a clear solution for how should the apprentice learn this ' empirical knowledge '. However, P. Gal'perin and V. Davydov found out the answer: a pedagogical programme. Gal'perin's focused on a ' Systemic-Theoretical Instruction ' and a ' concept-based instructional praxis '. On his theory, he proposed two procedures. On the one hand, materialization and, on the other hand, verbalization. Both procedures required the learner to use the SCOBA. Nonetheless, Hammerly argued that grammar explanations should be as concise as possible. - Rule-of-thumb knowledge. - For Ilyenkov, visual learning -. For Whitely (1986) this rule was not accurate because we can always find exceptions to an specific rule. Serrano-López and Poehner (2008) did a study about Spanish locative prepositions in a Spanish-as-a-foreign language classroom and realised that his students had difficulties in these. Therefore, he came out to the conclusion that the ' clay-modelling ' improved their learning conditions. Negueruela, 2003 and Yáñez Prieto, 2008 did a study on their classroom and realised that the rule-of-thumb made little sense. In the second study, Yáñez Prieto (2008) linked the concept to an involvement of the classroom through the reading, analysis and discussion of Spanish literary texts. The main problem that the spontaneous knowledge carried out is that it is not easily accesible to conscious inspection. Karpov (2003: 69 - 71) stated that there may be some problems with Vigotsky's theory because: ' the observable common features of a set of objects are not essential features of the entire class of objects under consideration'. The research surveyed in this present article made me think about the different strategies that I may use with my students. I totally agree with Vigotsky's theories and its empirical model when talking about 'praxis', however, I would have used another kind of pedagogical method with my clasroom. To me, the rule-of-thumb knowledge strikes my attention because in order to understand grammar it is necessary at first, to explain rules concisely so that the student have a clear knowledge and ideas about 2L acquisition and, once learnt the main rules of grammar, I would have made a deeper analyses with Vigotsky's theory based on ' praxis ': researching, theory and practice.