The Applied Linguistic Individual - Sociocultural Approaches to Identity, Agency and Autonomy - Phil Benson
2 Sociocultural Theory and the dialectics of L2 learner autonomy/agency
The Applied Linguistic Individual - Sociocultural Approaches to Identity, Agency and Autonomy - Phil Benson
James P. Lantolf [+]
School of Foreign Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong University; The Pennsylvania State University, Emeritus
James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics, Director of the Center for Language Acquisition, and Co-director of Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include Sociocultural Theory, second language acquisition, metaphor and conceptual knowledge. His is co-author, with S.L.Thorne, of Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development (2006) and edits the Equinox journal Language and Sociocultural Theory
Description
The first part of the book examines theoretical tensions between the social and the individual in their approaches. To set the stage, the author first discusses the concept of agency as it has been interpreted within SCT. And then consider those SCT concepts borrowed into ALR, which he believes appropriately reflect the theory. The author also discusses the concepts that in his point of view have been problematically integrated into ALR. Finally, Lantolf discusses those SCT principles he sees as relevant to classroom instruction and learning that aims to develop the learners’ agency.