Vygotsky and Language

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The more I read Vygotsky and of Vygotsky, the more I realise what an unsung hero of our field he is. It bothers me that so many others are credited with foundation work which is clearly his. The problem clearly lies in his work being published posthumously, as far as we in the West are concerned. We might like to fantasize that had the Soviet Union not been so insular, his work might have spread further afield. The same could be said of so many extraordinary creations in the 20th century Soviet Union.

A group of four academics produced Vygotsky's Mind in Society: Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, Sylvia Scribner, Ellen Souberman under the impetus of ...

It is surprising that at the ime of writing (13.5.10), this work does not get a mention in the Wikipedia article. On the other hand, this book is accused of being revisionist in a short review by Baker A. Mitchell, and he asks that the real Vygotsky stand up. He recommends Kozulin’s version of “Thought and Language.”

Unlike many people purporting to be pioneers in language education today, Vygotsky actually researched his hypotheses and his work is a collection of findings and reasons deriving from them. Far too much research carried out by some of ELT's BNIFs amounts to nothing more than selecting quotes from anything they read. When Galileo looked through his telescope, we moved beyond blind respect for ancient and holy books ... apparently not in ELT publishing. Wikipedia on Galileo:

According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo probably bears more of the responsibility for the birth of modern science than anybody else,[29] and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science.

In the introduction to Teaching Unplugged, for example, Jerome Bruner is credited with .... that strike me as Vygotsky.

Vygotsky's phases of everyday concept development and the notion of children's “working theories”

Helen Hedges, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand