Sociocultural Theory and L2 Development

Sociocultural theory has its origins in the writings of the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky and his colleagues. Sociocultural research is grounded in the genetic method, an approach to scientific research in which the development of individuals, groups, and processes is traced over time. In second language (L2) research, the zone of proximal development concept was used by A. Aljaafreh and J. P. Lantolf to analyze the relationship between mediation and L2 development. Considerable research has been carried out on the form and function of the developmental precursor of inner speech in children, generally referred to as private speech, which tends to be highly fragmentary yet observable speech that is reminiscent of the dialogue that occurs in everyday face-to-face social interaction. Research by Centeno-Cortés and Jimenez-Jimenez showed that even advanced L2 users had a difficult time solving problems that required technical knowledge when they deployed L2 private speech.