ABSTRACT
The second language acquisition (SLA) branch of applied linguistics began to grow its own theories and eventually emerged as a discipline without direct connections or interests in classroom instructional practice. Even though SLA emerged as an independent field, researchers continued to cast an eye toward the classroom setting and to wonder if and how the findings of their work might be relevant for teachers. Researchers soon began to ask questions about the nature of L2 acquisition that were not directly related to classroom instruction. The most pervasive and powerful of human symbolic creations is language, and it is language, as the quintessential human signification system, that Vygotsky situated at the heart of his psychological theory. The function of educational activity is to modify the understandings students have upon entering school and change them so they align with the best scientific knowledge available at any given time in human history.
