ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several of the main principles of Vygotsky's cultural historical theory that are found most important for understanding of the relationship between play and literacy. It also discusses a set of new instructional practices based on these principles that are developed to promote play and literacy development in preschool and kindergarten-aged children. For Vygotskians, the purpose of learning and teaching is more than acquiring and transmitting a body of knowledge; it involves the acquisition of mental tools. The changes in the human mind that Vygotsky associated with the use of mental tools include the transition from "reactive" behavior consisting of a response to the environment to behavior that is intentional and deliberate. Over a half-century since the Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) became known to Western educators, multiple attempts have been undertaken to apply this idea to classroom instruction.
