A Sociocultural-Theoretic Analysis of Teacher-Student Interaction in L۲ Writing Classrooms

The early days of research on second language (L۲) writing education lagged behind the ۱۹۹۰’s dominance of the Sociocultural Theory (ST) in the field of L۲ research. Later, researchers came to the realization that the ST could have significance for designing and developing L۲ writing education courses. Nevertheless, these efforts have been limited to the research circles and few L۲ writing courses have been particularly designed based on the principles of the ST. Motivated by this observation, this research intended to report the presence of the ST in L۲ writing courses held by four experienced Iranian language teachers. For this purpose, sessions of L۲ writing instruction from the classrooms of these teachers were recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were then coded and analyzed. The analysis was carried out at two levels; quantitative mediational analysis and qualitative analysis. The results of analysis indicated that the use of ST strategies were prevalent in the L۲ writing classrooms under investigation, showing that the teachers had implemented the principles of the ST in their own L۲ writing classrooms, though without conscious awareness. This was expected, because mediation, as the core premise of the ST, is constantly observed in all forms of education. The findings of the study have important implications for the teaching L۲ writing skills.

Keywords:

L۲ Writing Classrooms , Sociocultural-Theoretic Analysis , Teacher-Student Interaction