Position Paper - Vygotsky Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Position Paper - Vygotsky - Essay Example This concept is based on the idea that â€Å"cultural inheritance is carried in the meanings of artifacts and practices. Resources of knowledge and skill brought to a situation depend upon the past participation of the individual within the culture. Resources are dependent upon culture, also the stage of human development† (Golbfarb, 2000). In discovering how people learn and develop, Vygotsky suggested that children develop and gain control of their thought processes through the use of artifacts, one of the most important being the artifact of language, becoming increasingly able to incorporate their potential into inherent ability through zones of proximal development. This development takes place through various means, one of the most important being creative imitation of others. A second important means through which children develop control over their mental processes is through play and interaction with others. These theories have significant impacts upon how best to ins truct students attempting to learn a second language and attain some degree of mastery. To understand how this might be so, it is necessary to understand the importance of language in formulating thought and definition which is itself essential in bridging zones of proximal development (ZPD) to formulate true and lasting learning and development. One of the fundamental building blocks to Vygotsky’s theory is contained in the concept that individuals are only able to gain control over their naturally biologically endowed brains through the power of social and cultural means. â€Å"Thus, there is a tension, or as Vygotsky characterized it, ‘a drama’, between our natural inheritance and our sociocultural inheritance, and it is in this drama that we develop† (Lantolf, 2003: 350). The primary means of this mediation between the biological and the social or cultural is through the media of symbolic artifacts. In other words, humans understand the world around