Language Teaching as Sociocultural Activity: Rethinking Language Teacher Practice

Theoretical in orientation, the focus of this article is the study of language teachers and teaching and builds on a body of research that has become increasingly influential since the mid-1990s. S. Borg's (2006) recent review of the field identifies a number of pathways with promise for new areas of research, but it also highlights the conceptual challenges that continue to exist in terms of moving the field forward. This article aims to engage with these themes and concerns by considering the potential of Vygotskian (Vygotsky, 1978, 1987) sociocultural theory as the basis for a conceptual framework to research language teacher cognition. The conceptual challenges addressed include the need for a theoretical orientation that recognizes the social, practical, and contextual dimension of cognition; an understanding of the teacher as a historical, sociological agent within larger (and political) contexts for practice; an awareness of the contradictions and tensions that arise within cognition as thinking and doing is mediated by and played out within the contexts that it exists; and an analytic framework commensurate with current empirical and methodological developments in the field.