Term-Test II

Statements for the Argumentative Essay

According to Vygotsky (1968), “language and culture are the frameworks through which humans experience,
communicate, and understand reality.” In other words, language cannot be separated from culture, and vice versa.
They are like one of Saussure’s linguistic signs; they are the two sides of the same coin.
Constructivist theory Constructivism is a theory that aims to explain what knowledge is and how it is acquired. The
literature reveals that a general set of constructivist learning principles have evolved from the theory’s initial
development in the early 20th century to the present: a) that learning is an active process; b) that learning is a social
activity; c) that learning is contextual; d) that learning consists both of constructing meaning and constructing systems
of meaning; e) that prior knowledge is needed for an individual to learn; f) that learning involves language; g) that
learning is a longitudinal, adaptive, recursive process; h) that the development of meaning is more important than the
acquisition of a large set of concepts or skills; and, i) that motivation is essential for learning - An Introduction to
Constructivism and Authentic Activity Michael Cholewinski
The principle architect of social constructivism is the Soviet psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky (1986) and his
colleagues formulated a Sociohistorical Theory of Psychological Development, which argues that social interaction
plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition (Cole, 1978; Engeström et al., 1999; Wertsch, 1985).
Social constructivism, in contrast, is a cognitive theory of learning that argues that learning is a situated, social, and
collaborative activity in which learners are responsible for constructing their own knowledge (Vygotsky, 1986). It
asserts that optimal learning environments are those in which a dynamic interaction between instructors, learners
and tasks provide opportunities for learners to construct their own knowledge through social interaction with others.
Excepting the specifically social aspect of learning, social constructivism shares many similarities and overlaps with
cognitive constructivism.
According to Vygotsky (1986): Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level
and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child
(intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts.
All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals. (57)
In summary, Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory is based upon the view that humans create culture through the
use of tools, and culture, in turn, dictates what is valuable to learn and how it is learned. In this view, society (culture)
290 291 becomes the driving force behind cognitive development. Cognitive development is the internalization of
culture (social functions) and the conversion of those social functions into (higher) mental functions.

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“To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.”
― Frantz Fanon
understand reality
experience

Commented [1]: +unniehuimang@gmail.com

Commented [2]: La ultiman para communicarion

According to Lomicka and Lord (2016), in an ESL classroom, the learning process is enhanced by the use of Social
Networks (SN). They sustain that employing these online resources when teaching a foreign language not only
contributes to motivating students, but also helps them develop their socio-pragmatic competence and identity.
Motivation and User Profiles One benefit that has emerged with regard to the use of SNS is motivation and student
enjoyment. McBride (2009) suggested that daily engagement with Facebook could be a motivating factor for
pedagogically useful foreign language experiences. Stevenson and Liu (2010) explored the pedagogical and technical
use of three language-related SNS (i.e., Palabea, Live Mocha, and Babbel) in the context of foreign language learning.
Five participants tested the three SNS as they engaged in different tasks (exploratory, closed ended, and open ended).
The results of their exploratory survey study showed that the participants were interested and excited about the
possibilities of collaboration on SNS in terms of learning directly from other users including native speakers. However,
the data also revealed that the perceived user-friendliness of the sites also impacted students’ reactions.
http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/calj/n8/n8a09.pdf
Defining Pragmatic Competence Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics that has been defined as “the study of language
from the point of view of users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language
in social interaction and the effects their use of language has on other participants in the act of communication”
(Crystal, 1997, p.301). This term was originally placed within philosophy of language (Morris, 1938), but has developed
from this field to be related to sociolinguistics and Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Facultad de Ciencias
y Educación 173 Yined Tello Rueda other subdisciplines. Currently, this term is extensively used in the field of second
and FL acquisition and teaching, especially in reference to pragmatic competence as one of the abilities subsumed by
the overarching concept of communicative competence. The notion of pragmatic competence was early on defined
by Chomsky (1980) as the “knowledge of conditions and manner of appropriate use (of the language), in conformity
with various purposes” (p.224). This concept was seen in opposition to grammatical competence that in Chomskyan
terms is “the knowledge of form and meaning.” In a more contextualized fashion, Canale & Swain (1980) included
pragmatic competence as one important component of their model of communicative competence. In this model,
pragmatic competence was identified as sociolinguistic competence and defined as the knowledge of contextually
appropriate language use (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983). Later on, Canale (1988) expanded this definition, and
stated that pragmatic competence includes “illocutionary competence, or the knowledge of the pragmatic
conventions for performing acceptable language functions, and sociolinguistic competence, or knowledge of the
sociolinguistic conventions for performing language functions appropriately in a given context” (p.90)

socio pragmatic competence