Search results for "Sociocultural Theory"

Using Chinese in China - challenges and opportunities : a case study of three Finnish sojourners

2016

Despite the growing attention on interaction between language learners/sojourners and host community, there has been little research on second language (L2) using experience by adopting case study approach, by which each individual’s voice is valued. Grounded in sociocultural theory (SCT), the present study explores challenges and opportunities of international sojourners when they use Chinese in China by investigating three Finnish sojourners’ experiences in using Chinese. Coleman’s concentric circles model is adopted to illustrate sojourners’ different language choices and reasons with compatriots, international people and host community. Narratives and interview data are analyzed and dis…

Moving toward a Supetheory for All Seasons : Dialectical Dynamic Systems Theory and Sociocultural Theory - A Reply to McCafferty (2016)

2016

Moving toward a Supertheory for All Seasons: Dialectical Dynamic Systems Theory and Sociocultural Theory – A Reply to McCafferty (2016)

This can be made more student-centred : Asynchronous mediation in in-service teacher professional development

2022

Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory is a powerful foundation for research into teacher professional development. However, while this research has been growing, it has largely been focused on pre-service second/foreign language. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on how the instructional process informed by the principles of Sociocultural Theory, including assessment of candidates’ mediated performance, can be orchestrated to promote teachers’ conceptual development and induce changes in their classroom practices. The present study explores how asynchronous assessment of in-service teachers’ portfolios (with the focus on lesson planning) informed by dynamic assessment framework shaped the …

Researching ensemble teachers’ assessment criteria and values from a dialogical theoretical perspective

2009

Since the beginning of the 1980s, playing in pop ensembles and rock ensembles has been an integrated part of both Swedish music teacher education and the Swedish national curricula for music. However, there is little research on ensemble playing and teaching in Swedish schools, and even less so on the assessment and the criteria for assessment of this practice. The aim of my PhD project is to investigate what values music teachers in focus groups express and what criteria they base their judgements on when they comment on and discuss video excerpts from ensemble classes. This paper, however, focuses on the method of analysis: a discourse analytical method that is informed by a dialogical th…

Exploring and Reshaping Learners’ Beliefs About the Usefulness of Corrective Feedback : A Sociocultural Perspective

2016

A number of studies have shown that learners’ beliefs about the usefulness of corrective feedback for improving their L2 (a second or a foreign language) use influences the extent to which learners can utilize that same feedback. It seems, then, that changing some of these beliefs could benefit the L2 learning process. The present article reports on two small-scale studies, both drawing on a sociocultural perspective on the development of beliefs. Changes in learners’ beliefs about corrective feedback were observed both within a period of six months (Case study) and over the course of one research interview (Group study). The studies exemplify how the interplay of one’s own and other’s expe…

"Voidaan yhes kattoo!" : scaffolded assistance provided by a teacher in an EFL classroom

2000

"Naturally wired to learn" : beliefs about SLA in an online community

2013

Tämän tapaustutkimuksen tarkoituksena on kartoittaa tofugu.com – kieli- ja kulttuuriyhteisön uskomuksia kielenoppimisesta. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, mitä oppimisuskomuksia yhteisön keskusteluissa esiintyy, miten ne rakentuvat julkaisijan artikkeleissa sekä yleisön ja julkaisijan välisissä diskursseissa. Tutkin tätä analysoimalla syys- marraskuussa 2011 julkaistua kielenoppimiseen liittyvää artikkelisarjaa kommentteineen. Vastaavaa internetyhteisön oppimisuskomuksia kartoittavaa tutkimusta ei ole aikaisemmin tehty. Tutkielmani teoriatausta ja viitekehys pohjautuu Vygotskin sosiaalisen konstruktivismin oppimiskäsitykseen, jonka mukaan muokkaamme tietoamme sosiaalisissa konteksteis…

The type and the frequency of output-based activities in Finnish upper secondary school EFL textbooks : an overview of modern textbooks

2014

The study analyzes Finnish upper secondary school engslish as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks. It aims to create an overview of the type and the frequency of output-based activities in two different textbook series. The analysis examines textbooks from two different courses. The purpose of the study is to find out if there are gaps in the textbooks' activity repertoire so that teachers can complement them if they consider it necessary. No studies could be found that would provide an aspect to contribute to the present study. The data that consists of the units of activity in the textbooks is analyzed and categorized according to the method of theory guided content analysis. The activitie…

‘Because I point to myself as the hog’ : interactional achievement of moral decisions in a classroom

2016

Abstract Drawing on the conversation analytic and sociocultural perspectives, this study investigates children's situated moral negotiations in classroom peer interaction in the absence of a teacher. The conversation analytic methodology is used to operationalise some of the key elements of the sociocultural perspective on moral development. In this way, this study enables readers to observe and study the semiotic, conversational and interactional mediations of moral functioning in real life, with the example of children's moral practices. The empirical analysis is based on video-recorded sequences in which primary school children work with the rules of a counting rhyme which is banned by t…

Dynamic assessment of word derivational knowledge: Tracing the development of a learner

2016

The present paper reports on a case study that explored the applicability of dynamic assessment (DA) for promoting learners’ word derivational knowledge in English as a second or a foreign language (L2). One learner’s performance on tasks assessing his word derivational knowledge was measured four times. The first two measurements were conducted before and after three weekly human-mediated DA sessions and the last two, which took place a year and a half later, before and after three weekly computerised DA sessions. Think aloud protocols and interviews were used to trace changes in the learner’s use of strategies and knowledge sources. The results revealed that following the dynamic assessme…