Lantolf, Vygotsky, and Learning through and about Languages

In this essay I reflect on James P. Lantolf’s contributions to cultural-historical theory and second language learning. I begin with my personal subjectivity and experiences as a limited learner of additional languages beyond English. This anecdotal opening introduces the tension between formal learning in school and everyday immersion in a language system. I conclude that each is important, and that together they produce robust learning. I then review the terms of the immersion-vs-instruction approaches to learning additional languages, here with greater attention to theoretical points than my anecdotes provide. I next digress with attention to translanguaging, which calls into question the notion that there is necessarily an L1 to which other languages may be added. I then review the Marx-Hegel notion of dialectical thinking, central to Vygotsky’s thinking and informative in understanding language learning and cultural experiences. I finally review a troubling problem in educational writing, the tendency to trivialize complex concepts, focusing on how the Zone of Proximal Development has become conflated with instructional scaffolding. I conclude with brief thoughts about Lantolf’s contributions and how they have both been inspired by other people’s thinking, and in turn have enriched the understandings of those who engage with his scholarship.