The present article argues for a conceptual distinction between corrective feedback and mediation that emphasizes the status of the latter not as an instructional practice but as a defining feature of human psychology (Vygotsky, 1987) that has direct implications for how instruction might be approached. Specifically, Sociocultural Theory (SCT) posits that humans are always and everywhere mediated, as individuals draw upon meanings and ways of thinking they have already internalized as well as those that are available in their immediate environment to regulate their actions. With regard to second language (L2) education, rather than exclusively focusing on learner independent performance or whether learners improve following application of a particular corrective feedback strategy, a view of learner performance as a mediated process draws attention to changes – either over the course of an activity or from one activity to the next – to the degree of guidance learners require and the ways in which they respond to or negotiate that support. This mediation process, the changes that may be observed, and how these may be interpreted vis-à-vis learner development is illustrated with examples taken from two recent Dynamic Assessment (DA) studies involving Estonian learners of L2 English. The first study focuses upon one-to-one dialogic interaction in an individualized DA program while the second study reports the implementation of a computerized DA procedure ( n = 25). Together, they underscore how the goal of promoting learner L2 development through instruction may be advanced when mediational processes are taken into account and learner developmental trajectories are identified. Implications of mediational processes for future work interested in corrective feedback are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract

The Finnish classroom assessment culture is considered that of assessment for learning. The situation in upper-secondary schools is different, however. While teachers in Finland appreciate assessment supporting learning, they feel unable to merge it with assessment of learning outcomes, and favour the latter due to the Matriculation Examination (ME; e.g. Leontjev, submitted), a high-stakes exam growingly used in university admission. Learners, likewise, expect teachers to prepare them for the ME (Lakkala & Ilomäki, 2013), the results of which play a significant role in their further studies. The tension between assessment for learning and exam preparation is, therefore, often resolved in the benefit of the latter. In the present study, we illustrate how this tension can be resolved for teachers and learners in the benefit of supporting learning both in praxis—a dialectical unity of theory and practice, drawing on a detailed analysis of two interactions with learners. We will discuss the implications for the development of teacher classroom practices and teachers’ professional development.

A number of studies have shown that learners’ beliefs about theusefulness ofcorrective feedback for improving their L2 (a second or a foreign language) use influences the extent to which learners can utilize that same feedback. It seems, then, that changing some of these beliefs could benefit the L2 learning process. The present article reports on two small-scale studies, both drawing on a sociocultural perspective on the development of beliefs. Changes in learners’ beliefs about corrective feedback were observed both within a period of six months (Case study) and over the course of one research interview (Group study). The studies exemplify how the interplay of one’s own and other’s experience, others’ mediation, and authoritative voices facilitated these changes.