Past the Anthropocentric: Sociocognitive Perspectives for Tech-Mediated Language Learning

Abstract

Researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) have long debated the nature of human cognition and how it affects second language learning (L2L). On the one hand, and largely dominating the field of SLA, is the cognitive approach, which focuses on the brain as the unit for cognitive analysis. On the other hand, sociocultural theory holds that human cognition is mediated by cultural artifacts. These perspectives present significantly different views on interaction, understanding it as either auxiliary or instrumental in the learning process, or “fundamentally constitutive” of learning (Mondada & Pekarek Doehler, 2004, p. 502). Increasingly concerned with the role of technology in language learning, current computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research demands theoretical frameworks that account for the ecological relationship between learners, the tools they use, and the environments they inhabit. This article raises the issue of how anthropocentric perspectives on technology have permeated the field of CALL until now, inhibiting its development. I suggest the need for CALL to adopt a less instrumental, more determinist (Carr, 2010) view of the role that technology plays in language learning, by engaging in sociocognitive research (Atkinson, 2010) that embraces the transformative power that technology has over cognition.

Chatting with Your Peers across Modalities: Effects of Performing Increasingly Complex Written Computer-Mediated Tasks on Oral L2 Development

“…DUB sees language use as the driving force of second language (L2) learning (de Bot et al 2005(de Bot et al , 2007, since lexical and structural forms may only be acquired in a meaningful context, where new L2 form-use-meaning mappings (FUMMs), (Verspoor 2017) can be established. Since the COVID pandemic, online communication has become even more embedded in our everyday lives (Ocando Finol 2019), and it forms a major source of authentic language use, supporting L2 learning and teaching (Ito et al 2008;Lai and Zhao 2006). In particular, authentic interaction via (written) computer-mediated communication (CMC) 1 can be a fruitful way to develop the L2 (cf.…”