A Review of Sociocultural Theory and Language Teaching
Author : Binod Neupane
Abstract :
The main focus of sociocultural theory in language teaching is to engage learners in knowledge creation through social interaction. It underlines the assumption that learners can develop language proficiency not by memorising the rule of grammar and vocabulary, but by interacting, collaborating, and scaffolding in the particular socio-cultural context where a particular language is used. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of sociocultural theory in language teaching, particularly second language teaching. The article aims to review sociocultural theory along with its major components like the zone of proximal development and scaffolding, and how they support language teaching and learning. Moreover, it also analyses the role of scaffolding, interaction, and collaboration in developing children's language which clarifies the implication of sociocultural theory in language teaching. Since the nature of this paper is documentary analysis, I reviewed several articles related to this theory to see how sociocultural theory is associated with the language classroom in various contexts. This paper found that sociocultural theory emphasised learning connecting to social, cultural, and historical artifacts that can play a significant role in learners' cognitive development, and language teaching should be associated with making learning experiences relevant to the learners' context.
Keywords :
Sociocultural theory, the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, social interaction, collaboration
