201685472- Pineda

201685472
Ana Luisa Pineda Mancilla

Vygotskys theory
The child as social

Vygotskys views of development are different from Piagets theory, since he

gives importance to language and to the role of external people. Vygotskys
theory is centered in the sociocultural development of the child, even when
he did not neglect the individual development of the children. The theory
implies that the construction and development of the language in the second
year of the infant can generate shift in his/ her cognitive development.
During their development they move from the private speech, which is
when they speak to themselves when performing some activities to the
inner speech, that is when they are able to differentiate when is a public
speech and when is a speech for themselves. In the last stage they start to
speak less and less loud, which starts to be a way to control their public
behavior.
Vygotsky points out that at some point, children start to use just single words
to convey whole messages or phrases. An example of this can be when they
want to drink milk. A child in this stage would use just the word milk to say
that s/he wants to drink milk but, when the language develops they are able
to divide the message and be expressed by forming phrases with different
words, in this stage, the child would be able to say I want milk, instead of
just saying a single word.

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It is important to mention that with the help of older people, children are likely
to achieve more tasks than when they try to perform them by themselves.
With the help of an adult, they promote the babys Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD), which is the concept for giving to the word intelligence
a new meaning. Vygotsky suggested that intelligence should be measured
by what the kid is able to achieve with skilled help and adult instruction. For
some children teachers instruction can be just enough but for some others
they would need another type of help. In this ZPD concept it is also implied
that learning to do and learning to think are both fostered by speaking or
interacting with an adult.
In this way, children can go from doing things in a social context to finally
thinking and acting independently. This process can be also known as
internalisation, in which the transfer and transformation are closely related.
In this process, the interpersonal later becomes an intrapersonal action.

Reflection
By reading this, I could realize why is really important to learn about physical
and cognitive development if I am training myself to be a teacher. I can tell
that teachers have to take into account this information when planning
lessons and giving instructions in class, however, it is also important to know
that our students will be different from each other and we, as teachers,
would need to pay special attention to the ones that are having problems to
achieve the tasks required in the classroom. Those students would be the
ones that would need a different type of instruction and the teacher must be
able to give that kind of special instruction. This may sound a little bit difficult
when having a numerous group but everything is possible with the
organization and the suitable teaching techniques.

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ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)

The ZPD is a hypothesis that can explain the requirements for language
acquisition and is closely related to the theory of second language
acquisition, which may take place without full two-way communication,
even when the two-way-communication is the best way to acquire the target
language. Understanding the complexity of this concept is fundamental to
have a complete idea of how humans learn not only languages, but how they
learn in general.

The ZPD and Social Interaction

Even when Piagets and Vygotskys theories are different, both of them are
Constructivists, that means that they believed that the knowledge is
structured and formed from the individual to the active learning, just the
opposite thinking of the behaviorism, which principal claim was that
knowledge was structured from without the individual and that all the teacher
had to do was imprint this knowledge on the learners mind.
Piaget believed that maturation precedes learning and that the processes of
learning and mental development are independent of each other. He claimed
that learning utilizes development but does not shape its course. Teachers
and educators that agreed Piagets claims emphasized the readiness
principle that consists in that the student must be exposed primarily to input
that can be handled easily. To put in in a different way, the input must be at
the learners actual level of development.
Vygotsky differed since he saw the individual as having two developmental
levels from birth to forward and the argued that learning precedes
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maturation, just the other way around Piagets thinking. Through interaction,
the individual processes that Vygotsky called an actual developmental level
to a potential developmental level and, between this two levels is the ZPD,
which he defined as the distance between the actual developmental level as
determined by independent problem solving under adult guidance [] the
potential level then, becomes the next level through learning and then,
learning should be always ahead development.
For Piaget, the biological development determined the stages of
development but, in Vygotskys eyes, the society is the determiner of
development since each persons history is different so it could not be
established stages. In addition, Vygotsky placed a great deal of importance
on childrens play and daily activities just as going to school or playing
because they may create a ZPD. Although learning and development are
directly related, he suggested that they do not increase in equal amounts or
in parallel ways. Therefore, the relationship between this concepts is really
complex and cannot be reduced to a simple equation. As a result of this,
Vygotsky was convinced that learning itself is a social process through which
the teacher in a dialogue with a student can focus on emerging skills and
abilities.
Different recommendations have been done based on Vygotskys theory, for
instance, Wells (1999) suggests that teachers should:
Engage with learning in challenging and meaningful activities
Notice what the students can do by themselves
Provide students with help and guidance in moving forward to solve
problems, by forming a type of cognitive apprenticeship.
Through this kind of apprenticeship knowledge could be co-constructed, as
students and teacher make meaning on the bases of each others
endurance and experience.
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This cooperative relationship is quite important when the instruction of a

second language and, straight through this relationship the teacher
stablishes a rapport with the students and their emerging skills and abilities.
If this relationship does not take place, an effective communication would not
take place in the classroom. Meaningful interaction seems to be the key for
an effective learning of the target language.

Reflection
By reading and reflecting on this topic, the only thing I can think about is the
importance of a good rapport and interaction with my students in the
classroom. Because of my experience teaching children, I can tell that this is
completely true but also, complicated at some point, mostly because of the
affective barrier of the learner towards the language and the past
experiences with bad and inpatient teachers. I am also able to recognize the
difficultness and complexity in achieving this task, since the teacher has to
wreck this barriers with effective and suitable teaching techniques, materials
application and creativeness when planning and work really hard for gaining
students trust and respect. Until all of this happen, a good classroom
communication would not be achieve but, when it happens, the atmosphere
in the classroom and the students leaning shows a great deal of
improvement.

Questions

1. Is it possible that the ZPD occur between classmates and not only
with the teacher?

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2. Which would be the best way for a teacher to enhance the good

relationship and rapport with his/her students?