ABSTRACT
The L2 studies considered in this chapter followed Vygotsky's experimental-developmental approach in order to investigate the effects of Systemic Theoretical Instruction (STI) on the development of two areas of language that have not received extensive attention in L2 research: sociopragmatic variation in the use of 2nd person nominative pronouns tu/vous, 1st person plural pronoun on/nous, and the negation markers ne pas/ pas and the ability to detect and interpret sarcasm in L2 English. The third study, while not new in terms of its language focustopicalization in L2 Chineseis innovative in the sense that it directly challenged Pienemanns teachability hypothesis from a sociocultural theory (SCT) perspective. Of course, Vygotsky also understood that laboratory research is not the end point of praxis. Given that the three studies were experimental-developmental in nature and following the requirements of the praxis-based theory of development proposed by Vygotsky.
