Foreign Language Explanations Within the Zone of Proximal Development

Abstract

Recently, L.S. Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) has received considerable attention from foreign and second language specialists (Richard-Amato, 1988; Galloway & Labarca, 1990; Scarcella & Oxford, 1992; Schrum & Glisan, 1994). For Vygotsky, the ZPD is the instructional nexus where the expert (teacher) enters into a ''dialogue with the novice (learner) to focus on emerging skills and abilities'' (Richard-Amato, 1988, p. 33). Unfortunately, we have little research concerning the discourse strategies that occur in the ZPD, or the interactional features that the expert uses while instructing in the ZPD. This article, therefore, reports on a study that analyzes the communicative dynamics during explicit instruction of a grammatical concept (specifically the function of present tense first conjugation -er French verbs) instructed within the ZPD.