An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

9 SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY
Block discusses a further approach to the native speaker issue in his account of
sociocultural theory (Block 2003). As its name suggests, sociocultural theory
attempts to link human/mental processes to their cultural, historical and insti -
tutional settings. Because it appears to bridge the psycholinguistic and the socio -
linguistic it has attracted increasing attention to combat the partial approach by one
or the other. It also allows for the bringing together for language learning of the
native speaker and the second-language learner and permits a unified model since
in both cases what Vygotsky termed the zone of proximal development has to be
negotiated. As such, it permits an explanation of the native speaker in terms of
normal human development which includes the inter-relationship of language and
thought. What education (or other intervention) needs to achieve is this linkage in
second languages. The key contribution of sociocultural theory to discussions of and
research in language learning generally is that of ‘participation’ (Pavlenko and Lantolf
2000) which combines the social context with individual acquisition. In other words,
in terms of our discussion of the native speaker, you do not become an
L1 native speaker on your own, you need other (especially adult) participation to
negotiate through the zone of proximal development. The implications for this
approach are probably most keenly felt in assessment, shown by the claim that
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all assessment must be participatory. There are, of course, practical problems to
overcome; there is also the theoretical problem in that the insistence on participation
ignores the potential in all learners (all humans) for imagination and simulation
which suggests that virtual participation may be sufficient.