Interactionist

Interactionist

1. Who?

   • Piaget
     • Language is a symbol system used to express knowledge acquired through interaction with the physical world
   • Vygotsky
     • language develops primarily from social interaction
     • thought is internalized speech and speech emerges in social interaction

2. Principles

   • language acquisition is but one example of a child’s ability to learn from experience
   • environment extremely important
   • language acquisition is an interplay between innate ability and environment
   • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
     • Students can achieve higher levels of knowledge and performance with help of a More Knowledgeable Other

3. Problems and Deficiencies

   • Overdependence on a More Knowledgeable Other

4. Implications for Teaching

   • Mistakes are OK.
   • More Knowledgeable Other responsible for leading interaction.
   • Content Based - Tasks must be meaningful, and meaning full.

5. Relation to SLA

   • Comprehensible input is critical
   • Effective output is important as well.

Images and files in the map