In this volume, co-authors Lantolf and Thorne expand the exploration of sociocultural theory as inspired by Vygotsky into its most comprehensive treatment to date. Because Lantolf, in particular, has long spearheaded Vygotskian approaches to the link between communication, cognition, and meaning, readers will appreciate the elaboration and contextualization of familiar themes such as mediation, internalization, and the zone of proximal development. At the same time, careful reading should uncover considerable intellectual and professional challenges to a number of positions in SLA, in general, and to how Vygotsky's insights have been received, in particular. Therein lies the special contribution of the volume beyond its obvious value as a single source, a contribution that is the richer for the transdisciplinary connections it boldly sets forth and the yet-to-be-cultivated theoretical and research landscape toward which it points.
The volume's wide-ranging and differentiated theoretical arguments, along with reinterpretations of seemingly settled SLA research findings, should invite (re)consideration of the extent to which a Vygotskian stance is much more than a simple extension of familiar constructs and interpretations and much less a validation of extant pedagogical recommendations. Interactionist, constructivist, collaborative, and learner-centered arguments, even treatments of the discursive construction of identity as a central aspect of language development, might appear to carry strong affinities to Vygotsky's insights; however, the closer analysis provided by Lantolf and Thorne should cause wholesome unease in that belief. Other challenges might lie in the wide vistas characterizing the authors' treatment of cultural-historical psychology, involving major debates in European philosophy, sociology, and psychology of the last 200 years and recognition of diverse stances within the study of language. Finally, the work presupposes a certain willingness on the part of readers to accept as intellectually persuasive the empirical evidence that often is not only modest in quantity and limited in scope but that also, at least for now, tends to require extended, perhaps even tedious, author guidance through its details.
Such hurdles notwithstanding, the authors successfully make their case in a total of 12 chapters. Following the introduction, which lays out the larger intellectual environment for sociocultural theory, and chapter 2, which introduces Vygotsky's (Reference Vygotsky, Cole, John-Steiner, Scribner and Souberman1978) genetic method as overcoming a prevailing mind-body dualism, the volume's central chapters progress in a rhythm alternating between broad theoretical considerations of a particular topic and exploration of its implications for language development, especially second language (L2) development. Chapter 3 introduces mediation as the interweaving of our cultural and our biological inheritances, giving rise to the kinds of higher mental functions like memory, attention, rational thinking, and learning and development that allow us to self-regulate our lives. Inner speech, private speech, and gesture, along with metaphor, lexis, and narratives, are explored from the standpoint of symbolic mediation in chapters 4 and 5, respectively. A similar two-part treatment illuminates the role of internalization, along with mediation and consciousness awareness, the third central concept of Vygotsky's theory. Chapters 8 and 9 position Vygotsky's insights within activity theory, an approach that has informed areas of human social practice far beyond language use. Chapter 10 is devoted to an in-depth treatment of the zone of proximal development that places particular emphasis on the “nuanced determination of both development achieved and developmental potential” (p. 263); that is,
on the ways in which socialization processes involving the inculcation of concepts through practical-critical activity mediated by direct adult and/or peer intervention, provide opportunities for the construction of psychological tools through which developing individuals are able to increasingly participate in and produce culturally organized activity. (pp. 288–289)
Devoted to L2 pedagogy, the concluding chapters exemplify how Vygotsky's work has been developed theoretically and in L2 research. Chapter 11 focuses on systemic-theoretical instruction, which explores the extent to which so-called scientific explicit instruction that is verbalized by learners and materialized in an appropriate model can lead to the kind of internalization and, by extension, development that is otherwise simply presumed. Chapter 12 addresses the link between instruction and assessment in what is called dynamic assessment, a kind of mediated learning experience that foregrounds the potential of a learner's cognitive transformation over performance efficiency in the process of assessment. A rich bibliography and separate author and subject indexes round out the volume.
Lantolf and Thorne have presented the field with a wide-ranging, differentiated, and provocative treatment of sociocultural theory in relation to L2 development. Readers, in turn, can anticipate gaining a deep sense of the profoundness and fecundity of the new ontology for understanding human social and mental life that is Vygotsky's past contribution and future promise within the continuing study of the development of language.
