ABSTRACT
In this chapter and the next (Chapter 8), we turn our attention to theorists who view language learning in essentially social terms. In both these chapters, we examine the work of those who claim that target language interaction cannot be viewed simply as a source of ‘input’ for autonomous and internal learning mechanisms, but that it has a much more central role to play in learning. Indeed, for some researchers, interaction itself constitutes the learning process, which is quintessentially social rather than individual in nature. This is not a new view (see Hatch, 1978), but it was given extra impetus in the 1990s by an increasing interest in applying learning theory associated with the name of the Soviet developmental psychologist, Lev S. Vygotsky, to the domain of second language learning (SLL). In this chapter, we review and evaluate this strand of thinking and research, here called ‘socio-cultural’ theory following most current writers in this field.
