Dynamic assessment (DA) is an effective tool for diagnosing learner abilities that are still being internalized. Although mediation and learner reciprocity are inseparable features of DA, the latter has rarely been analyzed or theorized about compared to mediation. To address this research gap, this paper examines learner reciprocity in a text chat-mediated environment. The study involved eight English as a Second Language (ESL) students and four ESL teachers who participated in task-based interactions. During these interactions, teachers used a DA-based regulatory scale to assist learners in completing the tasks. Data were collected from text chat-mediated interactions and oral conversations during the text chat interactions. Data were analyzed employing an approach inspired by conversation analysis (CA), and five reciprocity moves were identified: incorporating the mediator's feedback, providing a correct response following the mediator's feedback, imitating the mediator, seeking mediator's approval, and accepting and acknowledging the mediation. The findings indicated how the types of reciprocity moves could be used to diagnose the learner's current level of development, which can help teachers to decide how much more instructional effort might be needed.

Irrespective of language proficiency, many EFL language learners still have problems conceptualizing the English temporal system. Teaching L2 concepts in learners’ L1 or a mixture has, to some extent, facilitated the learning process, yet has lessened exposure to the target language in the EFL classroom. Grounded in Vygotskyan Sociocultural theory, the present work investigated the effectiveness of Gal'perin's Systemic-Theoretical Instruction (also Concept-Based Language Instruction) on teaching English temporality to three Iranian graduate students using L2 as the language of instruction. Through structural corroboration, the results revealed an overall metamorphic psychical transformation observed during participants’ verbal reasoning, conscious orientation, and mindful engagement when solving problems. Our data underpinned the facilitative role of SCOBAs in formulating L2 concepts. In addition, we posit that in classes with adequately proficient L2 learners it is possible to teach L2 items using the target language as the medium of instruction. This study has implications for language policymakers, curriculum planners, material developers, and teacher educators.

The present study adopts an interactional ethnographic approach to trace the establishment of class Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) through a detailed examination of the distribution of mediational tools/moves, interactional modes, and the changing nature and functions of discursive events within three strata of the classroom space. Observation and coding of 70 hours of classroom footage, an in-depth study of the cadence of one full instructional unit, and microgentic analyses of key discursive events reveal how a teacher framed joint activities that advanced the class ZPD. The findings expand Newman, Griffin, and Cole's (1989) metaphor that described the classroom as ‘a construction zone with multiple concurrent work areas and spaces by documenting how work done in each space and the opportunities for learning created in each act of interaction or collaboration adds to the overall capital of the classroom, shaping the learning potential of the group.

Vygotsky the Teacher provides a valid introductory guide concerning Vygotsky's psychology and its application to education and pedagogy. Myra Barrs establishes essential background to Vygotsky's work and includes contemporary insights and controversies regarding the interpretation of his research. This book provides carefully researched information that insightfully explains Vygotsky's work concerning development of the human mind. The following review describes the major points and concepts Barrs highlights in the book.

This glossary, originally composed in Spanish and now translated into English, compiles a list of essential Sociocultural Theory (SCT) concepts that are relevant to Second Language (L2) teaching and learning, applied linguistics, and research methodology. The terms compiled here define key SCT concepts with a focus on brevity (one paragraph definitions). This glossary is only intended as a point of departure to support and promote consistent research practices and applications within educational contexts. To conclude, we also include a basic protocol for integrating this glossary into research practices.

Although increased numbers of law schools are establishing and expanding Master of Laws (LL.M.) programs for legally educated individuals from other countries, few studies document any aspect of their learning in U.S. law schools ( Lazarus-Black & Globokar, 2015 ). Additionally, despite the fact that these students are already experts in one legal system and English language learners, most educational programs designed for LL.M. students work from the assumption that instruction should be identical to that provided for American J.D. students with the addition of a language component. From a Vygotskian perspective, however, instructional programs for LL.M. students may be better organized if they account for students already having expert reasoning ability in a different legal system, where legal discourse is differently constructed and differently read when compared with American common law. This article explicates a concept-based instruction (CBI) course for multilingual LL.M. students in a U.S. law school, where the salient differences between legal systems and language proficiency were accounted for. Specifically, the CBI for multilingual students program takes analogical reasoning as salient to U.S. common law reasoning and distinct from the legal systems in which the LL.M. students are trained. The article traces how material and social mediation provoke development of one student's ability to engage in legal analogical reasoning.

This article traces the mediated formation of L2 pragmatics concepts as it occurred in classroom interactions during a concept-based pragmatics instruction enrichment program in a first-semester university-level Spanish class. Building on previous research documenting the outcomes of such enrichment programs, we delve into the microgenesis of pragmatic concepts through careful line-by-line analysis of interactions between students and their teacher. We focus in particular on one student, Donna, and show how classroom interaction provided an opportunity for her to pick up and reappropriate relevant conceptual language that in turn developed into new pragmatic concepts. We argue that Donna's contributions to classroom interactions were not simply evidence of what she knew about Spanish pragmatics but were constitutive of the developmental process as it occurred in real time.

Disciplinary ways of thinking and communicating are connected, and this relationship presents challenges for concept-based language instruction that is embedded in specific disciplines. While some disciplinary concepts are simply relevant to the surrounding discourse, others play a fundamental role in organizing how experts think and communicate in their fields. These discourse-structuring concepts can play a useful role in discipline-embedded concept-based language instruction. This article illustrates how one such concept was integrated in the context of a legal writing course, using the cognitive linguistic framework of mental spaces and blending as a tool for representing the connections between this disciplinary concept and corresponding linguistic features through models that learners applied to dialogic discourse analysis tasks. The article illustrates how learners made sense of the models in completing these verbalization tasks and offers suggestions for integrating Concept-based Language Instruction in the Language for Specific Purposes classroom.

Recent scholarship has begun enhancing concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) research and practice with the use of various digital and online technologies. In this article, exemplar studies are presented to illustrate the various design principles that have so far been used in this research. These include the use of online tutorials, mobile applications, and video analysis software for materializing complex second-language (L2) phenomena, dealing with time constraints in the classroom, scalability of C-BLI, and fostering communication in the L2. Although it may be possible to design concept-based language instruction enrichment programs in fully technology-mediated environments, the main argument presented in this article is that we need to examine how technology can enhance human-mediated instruction by providing expanded opportunities for learners to engage in conceptual instruction, problem solving, and communication.