Lev Vygotsky

1. LevVygotsky By: Katherine Marzán Concepción

2. Biography • He was born on Friday November 17, 1896 in the city of Orsha, Rusia. • Lev SemenovichVygotsky (1896-1934) studied at the University of Moscow to become a teacher of literature. • His first research as a young scholar focused on artistic creation. • It was only from 1924 on that his career changed dramatically as he started working in the areas of developmental psychology, education and psychopathology.

3. Biography • He pursued these interests at a highly productive pace until he died of tuberculosis in 1934 at a very young age (Murray Thomas, 1993). • In his brief life-span he acquired vast knowledge not only of psychology but also of the social sciences, philosophy, linguistics and literature.

4. Biography • Due to different factors, including those related to the particular political relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, Vygotsky's work remained unknown in the Americas for decades. • When the Cold War ended, the incredible wealth of Vygotsky's work began to be revealed. Nowadays, it is difficult to exclude Vygotsky from any serious discussion of learning processes.

5. Language: a defining human characteristic • It is commonly accepted that language is a defining human characteristic – no other species uses a communication system so complex, and our entire way of life depends on its use.Language enables us to share experience, within and across generations, in ways that other species cannot. • Vygotsky realised that language is more than a complex, highly effective medium for sharing information. • Once humans learn their first language, it becomes inextricably interwoven with the patterns and contents of their thoughts. In acquiring a language, Vygotsky suggested, children gain a tool for thinking.

6. Thought and Language Rather, it is about the attempt to adapt the self into a new context and a new world. It is about the struggle for participation in a new social environment. • He wrote a book named “Thought and Language”, published the year after his death. • This book examines second language acquisition (SLA) and Culture acquisition, but not in the usual sense where the lexical, Grammatical and semantic systems are learned or acquired. Participation has emerged in the SLA literature as a metaphor for learning a new language.

7. Functions of Language • From Vygotsky we have the notion of language serving two functions: 1. as a psychological tool 2. as a cultural tool • As a psychological tool, we use it not just as a classification system for organising our thoughts, but also for reasoning, planning, reviewing.

8. Functions of Language • Our use of language as a cultural tool involves us in a two-way process of constant change. ‘Culture’ is the joint knowledge available to members of social groups which provides the basis for co-ordinated social activity. Gaining access to the culture of society is a formative influence on our ways of thinking. • We use language not only as a means of sharing information in society, but also as a way of making things happen – by influencing the actions of others.

9. Vygotsky says: • Vygotsky says 1978, principally language development of social interaction. • Your opinion differs from that of Piaget, q essentially thinking is internalized language. The language was born from the social interaction. The language was born from the social interaction.

10. An Interactive Theory • Unlike most other psychological theories which have influenced educational practice, Vygotsky’s theory is not an individualistic theory of learning and development. It is an interactive theory, which aims to deal with the activities of teachers or others with guiding influence as well as with those of the ‘learners’.

11. An Interactive Theory • For these reasons, the socio-cultural perspective built upon the foundations of Vygotsky's work has recently been seen by some second language learning researchers as offering a better basis for future applied research than the more individualistic perspectives which have been used hitherto in the second language acquisition (SLA).

12. Focus: 1. It focuses on the question of how social and cultural factors influence intellectual development. 2. The Zone of Proximal Development = area of development in which a child can be guided in the course of interaction.

13. Applications of the Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory • Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher.

14. Conclusion I believe that knowing Lev Vygotsky was very useful, as I learned that language plays an essential role in the social and historical processes of the individual. We can say that about this research is of great theoretical importance to education because these works provide tools for the development of individual learning can be used by a teacher or the learner and that they can apply the best research methodology according to their needs.

15. References • http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/pdf/356/35601309.pdf • http://www.speech-therapy-information-and-resources.com/vygotsky.html. • http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotsky-social-learning-theory.html. • http://www.doschivos.com/trabajos/sociales/1897.htm • htpp://www.educar.org/articulos/vygotsky.asp • htpp://mennta.hi.is/starfsfolk/solrunb/vygotsky.htm