Learning to do concept-based pragmatics instruction: Teacher development and L2 pedagogical content knowledge

Abstract

This article explores the development of pedagogical content knowledge in relation to one teacher’s experience in learning to engage in a Vygotskian approach to teaching second language (L2) pragmatics known as ‘concept-based pragmatics instruction’ (CBPI). The teacher, Mrs. Hanks, was a PhD candidate in second language acquisition at the time of the study, and she was a co-investigator for a larger project that investigated the integration of CBPI into an intact L2 French class that she was teaching. We focus on three aspects of Mrs. Hanks’ development: (1) mediation she received during ‘mentoring meetings’ with a more expert collaborator (her co-investigator), (2) changes in her classroom practices during the study, and (3) metacognitive reflections on her progress at the end of the study. Drawing on Vygotskian theory, we examine Mrs. Hanks’ development in terms of her internalization and transformation of relevant pedagogical content knowledge. In this way, we are contributing to the very small amount of empirical work examining teacher education/development in the context of ‘learning to do’ concept-based instruction (e.g. Williams, Abraham, & Negueruela, 2013), with specific focus on CBPI.

Keywords

Concept-based instruction pedagogical content knowledge second language pragmatics sociocultural theory teacher education

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Davydov

V.V.

(2004). Problems of developmental instruction: A theoretical and experimental psychological study (Trans. Moxay

). Moscow: Akademyia Press.

Ferreira

(2005). A concept-based approach to writing instruction: From the abstract concept to the concrete performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

Galperin

P.I.

(1989). Organization of mental activity and the effectiveness of learning. Soviet Psychology, 27, 65–82.

Galperin

P.I.

(1992). Stage-by-stage formation as a method of psychological investigation. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 30, 60–80.

Hill

H.C.

Rowan

Ball

D.L.

(2005). Effects of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching on student achievement. American Education Research Journal, 42, 371–406.

Johnson

K.E.

(2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. New York: Routledge.

Lantolf

J.P.

Johnson

K.E.

(2007). Extending Firth and Wagner’s (1997) ontological perspective to L2 classroom praxis and teacher education. Modern Language Journal, 91, 877–892.

Lantolf

J.P.

Thorne

S.L.

(2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Negueruela

(2003). A sociocultural approach to teaching and researching second language: Systemic-theoretical instruction and second language development. Unpublished PhD thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.

10.

Negueruela-Azarola

(2011). Beliefs as conceptualizing activity: A dialectical approach for the second language classroom. System, 39, 359–369.

11.

Negueruela

Lantolf

J.P.

(2006). Concept-based pedagogy and the acquisition of L2 Spanish. In Salaberry

Lafford

B.A.

(Eds.), The art of teaching Spanish: Second language acquisition from research to practice (pp. 79–102). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

12.

Photosynthesis. (2009). In Biology online. Retrieved from: http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Photosynthesis (July 2014).

13.

Shulman

L.S.

(1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1–22.

14.

Stetsenko

Arievitch

I. M.

(2010). Cultural-historical activity theory: Foundational worldview, major principles, and the relevance of sociocultural context. In Kirschner

S.R.

Martin

(Eds.), The sociocultural turn in psychology: The contextual emergence of mind and self (pp. 231–252). New York: Columbia University Press.

15.

Swain

Lapkin

Knouzi

Suzuki

Brooks

(2009). Languaging: University students learn the grammatical concept of voice in French. Modern Language Journal, 93, 5–29.

16.

van Compernolle

R.A

. (2014). Sociocultural theory and L2 instructional pragmatics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

17.

van Compernolle

R.A.

Henery

. (in press). Instructed concept appropriation and L2 pragmatic development in the classroom. Language Learning.

18.

Vygotsky

L.S.

(1978) Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

19.

Vygotsky

L.S.

(1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

20.

Wertsch

(2007). Mediation. In Daniels

Cole

Wertsch

(Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 178–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

21.

Williams

Abraham

L.B.

Negueruela-Azarola

(2013). Using concept-based instruction in the L2 classroom: Perspectives from current and future language teachers. Language Teaching Research, 17, 363–381.