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Let's not get tied into knots: a response to Newman, (2018)—Vygotsky, Wittgenstein and sociocultural theory
Author(s) -
Lantolf James P.,
Xi Jiao
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/jtsb.12210
Subject(s) - sociocultural evolution , epistemology , zone of proximal development , sociology , psychoanalysis , philosophy , psychology , anthropology , pedagogy
The September 2018 issue of this journal included an article by Newman, (2018) that challenges research carried out on second language acquisition (henceforth, SCT‐L2) informed by the psychological theory proposed by L. S. Vygotsky. We would like to respond to Newman's critique, which he problematizes as three “knots” that he then undertakes to untie through analysis of Vygotsky's writings contained in Vygotsky's two most popular works, Thought and Language and Mind in Society . We first summarize Newman's knots and his approach to untying them. We then present our response to each of these in turn.