Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives (review)

Over the past 25 years, the field of second language (L2) education has witnessed a flourishing of research into the processes of L2 teaching, learning, and assessment framed according to principles of L.S. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT). Perhaps not surprisingly, some of this work has strayed far from Vygotsky’s actual proposals, in some cases conflating them with incongruous theories. This point is readily acknowledged by the authors of Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education, a book that itself makes an important contribution to our understanding of the theory’s relevance to the L2 domain. Indeed, the authors encourage readers to engage with original texts by Vygotsky and other SCT authors (references are included at the end of each chapter), and while there can be little doubt of the value of reading Vygotsky’s writings, Swain, Kinnear, and Steinman’s new book makes an indispensible companion to that body of work.

The authors draw upon their considerable collective knowledge of SCT as well as a wealth of experience in language teaching and teacher education. The result is a book that offers a nuanced, in-depth presentation of SCT concepts and simultaneously enacts key principles from the theory by ‘mediating’ these concepts to readers. Individual chapters are devoted to the following SCT proposals: mediation, the zone of proximal development, private speech and collaborative dialogue, every day and scientific concepts, the interrelatedness of cognition and emotion, activity theory, and assessment from an SCT perspective. Each chapter begins by outlining the particular feature of SCT to be considered. Then, over the course of the chapter, the authors bring together a formal, abstract discussion of the SCT concept and a narrative involving L2 teachers and learners. These carefully orchestrated explorations allow readers to move from an initial presentation of a theoretical concept to engaging stories of immigrants, immersion students, and other language learners – often composed by the learners themselves – and then back to an investigation into how the narrative may be interpreted in light of the theory. Readers thus come to understand the theory itself through a sort of dialogue between real world narratives and abstract concepts. Swain, Kinnear, and Steinman facilitate readers’ efforts through key features in each chapter, including the identification of ‘controversial issues’ surrounding the concept under discussion (e.g., similarities between uses of activity theory and complexity theory in the L2 field), an annotated set of ‘key studies’ that either apply or elaborate the primary concept in that chapter, and a set of questions posed to the reader and intended to generate discussion of the concept’s implications for research and practice. These questions function as a fruitful point of departure for dialogue in courses in which this book might be used as well as for prompting consideration of how practicing language teachers might bring SCT principles into their own classrooms. A final chapter then presents readers with narratives and invites them to draw upon all of the SCT concepts previously discussed to develop their own analysis.

For an introductory text, it is also noteworthy that the authors do not shy away from the more complex intricacies of the theory, including those that have stirred controversy among Vygotskian researchers. For example, the chapter on the zone of proximal development (ZPD) delves into distinctions between this concept and work on scaffolding and communities of practice. Far from dismissive of these other ideas, the authors present them as concepts that may be associated with ZPD and then go on to offer thoughtful commentary concerning how these align with and diverge from Vygotsky’s conceptualization of ZPD. Such depth of treatment is often reserved for monographs addressed to researchers already working with or well versed in the theory. However, the authors manage to encompass these issues in their discussion, clearly viewing this as part of their goal of presenting an accessible, and yet not watered-down, introduction to SCT. Similarly, Swain, Kinnear, and Steinman cover an impressive...