Prior research has supported the development of language through interaction (e.g. Swain, Brooks & Tocalli Beller, 2002; Swain, 2005). Following Sociocultural theory (SCT) notions (Vygotsky, 1978), metatalk (MT) is claimed to be a specific aspect of interaction that leads to language development (e.g. Swain & Lapkin, 2002; Swain, 2005). This study takes a step further to explore the relationship between MT and language development by inquiring specifically about vocabulary development. Learners of Spanish as a second language completed a dictogloss activity and their interactions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The analysis of lexical language-related episodes (LLREs) was carried out by adopting Sociocultural theory as a theoretical framework in order to trace lexical development in interaction through MT. Conclusions indicate that (1) because MT is a cognitive and semiotic tool that enables lexical development by means of participation in socially-mediated activities it is comparable to other forms of speech in their mediation functions and potential; (2) learners’ MT included the analysis of meaning, spelling, pronunciation, and word function, and reflected SCT concepts such as agency, situatedness, and task versus activity that explain their reliance on the word depth knowledge construct; and (3) SCT principles (e.g. roles, regulation) provide a window into learners’ transformation and imminent development during MT. Inferencing strategies and interaction features contribute further details to the analysis of how MT unfolds. New categories describing MT in interaction emerged from the data and illustrate how learners object-regulate and position themselves in the task. These results provide a detailed account of how MT occurs in collaborative settings to mediate vocabulary knowledge. This research contributes to the study of L2 vocabulary learning through the application of SCT. / text

This is an ethnographic study designed to form an in-depth description and understanding of multilingual learners’ mathematical experiences and meaning-making in a plurilingual educational setting. I assumed a sociocultural perspective that draws from Vygotsky’s theory of learning and development. A sociocultural perspective offers a promising epistemological conceptualization of children, their learning, and language development as mediated by social, cultural, and historical contexts. One grade 2/3 classroom with 18 students from Eritrea, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria participated in the study. The data included observations, video recordings of students working on mathematics activities, copies of students’ work, and interviews with students. The results of the study revealed the teacher’s pedagogical practices as a significant influence on students’ mathematical meaning-making and learning experiences, which in turn influenced students’ individual identities as mathematics learners in the grade 2/3 classroom. There were also institutional and sociopolitical aspects that influenced the teacher’s practices, and in turn, influenced students’ mathematics experiences. Hence, the influences on students’ learning of mathematics take the form or shape of a reciprocal formation where one influence is connected to and influences the other. The findings of the analysis also show that it was the students’ interactions with one another that were at the heart of their meaning making. Students’ interactions were significant to their meaning making as they were constantly learning from one another. Little meaning making would have happened without these interactions. These interactions encouraged students to develop a collection of resources to share their thinking and ideas through verbal, visual, and written mathematical communications. Hence, utilizing language to make meaning and to negotiate their mathematical understanding. Ultimately, the descriptions of multilingual learners’ mathematics experiences and meaning making may inform research and practices to support other multilingual learners’ experiences in mathematics education. This study also contributes to what is still a very limited body of literature on multilingual students’ mathematical experiences and meaning in a Canadian educational setting.

The efficacy of corrective feedback (CF) on writing for second language (L2) development has been much studied in applied linguistics since Truscott’s (1996) polemic against written CF. However, no clear picture of its effectiveness has emerged yet as empirical studies have reported conflicting findings. The majority of these studies are short-term studies focusing on the role of teacher-centered written CF from the cognitive perspective, and therefore the long-term developmental process, oral CF, and the role of the learner and learner affect in the feedback process have been under-explored. In addition, previous research has focused on English learners, and little is known about the impact of CF in writing on learners of non-European languages. In an attempt to address these research gaps, the present study, using sociocultural theory as its theoretical framework, investigated the long-term impact of Vygotskyan dialogic CF, an operationalization of CF as mediation in the learner’s zone of proximal development (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994), on L2 Japanese writers’ linguistic and affective outcomes. To carry out this investigation, a year-long mixed-methods case study was conducted. Participants were two American undergraduate Japanese as a foreign language learners who were asked to produce personal writing and then participate in a face-to-face writing conference to receive dialogic CF from the researcher. Data included the two learners’ writing samples, interviews, audio-recordings of the writing conferences, and researcher field notes. Learners’ linguistic outcome was analyzed quantitatively using accuracy rates in writing and also qualitatively using genetic method (Vygotsky, 1978) to trace changes in the learner’s responsiveness to dialogic CF. Learners’ affective outcome was qualitatively analyzed using the interview data. The findings with respect to linguistic outcomes obtained from longitudinal data revealed the ‘wave-like’ characteristic of the nature of the L2 developmental process, which questions the common data interpretation equating the lack of short-term accuracy improvement with inefficacy of CF. The findings from the interview analysis showed that positive emotions were frequently engendered and the two learners frequently exercised their agency during dialogic CF writing conferences, which suggests that feedback process in L2 writing is not only a cognitive process but also an affective process.

Languaging and translanguaging are very important concepts in science classrooms when considering their role as mediational tools for supporting emergent bilingual students' needs. Languaging, including translanguaging, has to do with how people perceive, connect, and understand the activities and utterances around them through verbal and non-verbal communication in any language. This study positions languaging and translanguaging as mediational tools that can be used for supporting the use of science terms and overcoming second language challenges with them. Emergent bilingual students can benefit from the implementation of languaging characteristics that promote classroom discourse spaces where all their repertoire for responding, and learning can occur. Using a sociocultural-ecological theoretical perspective and mediational analysis, this qualitative study provides descriptive evidence identifying important concepts and characteristics that emerged during languaging and translanguaging moments during naturally occurring classroom discourse among students and teacher. Findings demonstrated that when participants changed their participation and identity roles, extended their talk to negotiate meaning, used background knowledge, and applied language play with the scientific terms (i.e., biology vocabulary), it supported the participants in understanding and using those terms during biology lessons. This study discusses how the above language characteristics, as mediational means during languaging and translanguaging discourse, provided important paths for making meaning of scientific terms. Conclusions and implications include how lessons should provide spaces that welcome such characteristics for their meaningful roles in supporting emergent bilingual students.

Peer learning is a learning strategy that enables learners to interact with others and become active participants in their learning. To design peer learning activities, a model of peer learning is necessary to provide peers with guidance. However, previous models related to peer learning have not contained systematic strategies from diagnosis to evaluation. Scaffolding is an appropriate tactic for peer learning as it includes diagnosis, specific learning strategies, and assessment procedures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a model of peer learning that incorporates scaffolding strategies in order to provide a structure for designing and implementing effective peer learning, and to enhance peers' teaching skills and learners' capability to gain new knowledge. This study drew from design and development research, including model development and model revision. This process was arranged in four phases. The first phase comprised of an intensive literature review to identify related theories, the conceptualization of scaffolding, and the operationalization of scaffolding. In the second phase, the model of peer learning was developed based on the results of the literature review. The model was synthesized using the data from the literature review, which included the main elements and characteristics of scaffolding suitable for peer learning. An online education program was also developed to teach the steps in the model to peer tutors participating in a peer tutoring program, which is one type of peer learning, for the purposes of model validation. In the third phase, model validation through internal (expert review) and external (external validation interview for field evaluation) validation was implemented. Based on the outcomes of these model validation processes, in the fourth phase, guidelines for revisions were developed to improve the proposed model. This model exhibits a synthesis of scaffolding strategies that enhance peer learning, including related theories, the conceptualization of scaffolding, and the operationalization of scaffolding. This model consists of four steps: (a) knowing each other, (b) learning together, (c) checking what you learned, and (d) finalizing peer learning. According to the results of model validation using an online education program designed for peer tutors participating in a peer tutoring program, which is one type of peer learning, this model of peer learning was useful for peers in providing structure and guidance for the design of their peer learning activities and the selection of appropriate peer learning strategies for learners who had different backgrounds and skills. This model is also applicable to various subjects and fields. / Doctor of Philosophy / Peer learning is a learning strategy that enables learners to interact with others and become active participants in their learning. To design effective peer learning activities, a model of peer learning is necessary to provide peers with guidance. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a model of peer learning that incorporates scaffolding strategies in order to provide guidance for designing and implementing effective peer learning, and to enhance peers' teaching skills and learners' ability to gain new knowledge. This study was conducted through model development and model validation. For model development, previous research and books were reviewed to identify main elements of scaffolding such as related theories, the conceptualization of scaffolding, and the operationalization of scaffolding. Based on identified elements of scaffolding, the model of peer learning was developed. This model consists of four steps: (1) knowing each other, (2) learning together, (3) checking what you learned, and (4) finalizing peer learning. According to the results of model validation using an online education program designed for peer tutors participating in a peer tutoring program, which is one type of peer learning, this model of peer learning was useful for peers in providing guidance for the design of their peer learning activities and the selection of appropriate peer learning strategies for learners who had different backgrounds and skills. This model is also applicable to various subjects and fields.

Creative Writing in English (CWE) has not been extensively researched in Brazil. There are few courses about CWE in Brazilian Languages and Literature universities, and even fewer available publications in this area as well (Myers, 2006; Morley, 2007; Blythe and Sweet, 2008; Healey, 2009; Oberholzer, 2014). According to Brazilian Educational Bases and Guideline Law, creativity should be comprehended as one of the main foundations of the Brazilian education, from the primary schooling to the tertiary level. For higher education, this law established the importance of stimulating cultural creation, creative thinking broadening, creative skills honing and cognitive capacities. Nevertheless, very few Brazilian institutions have provided their Languages and Literature undergraduate students with CWE disciplines and/or extracurricular courses focusing on the development of their students\' creative writing The University of São Paulo (USP) is one of these few institutions. For these reasons, a Fanfictional Creative Writing in English (FCW) course was designed and taught at USP by the end of 2016. This course had 5 participants who were all Languages and Literature undergraduate students from USP. The aims of the FCW course and this research were to identify the students\' concepts about creativity, fanfictions and creative writing courses. Along with these identifications, the other aims have been the investigation of the students broadening of these concepts and the development of their fanfictional creative writing. The methodology of this research involved the organization and teaching of the extracurricular Fanfictional Creative Writing in English course. In order to achieve the aims of this research, the extracurricular course was based on the Vygotskian sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 2004; 2007). The data collected indicated that the Fanfictional Creative Writing in English students developed their creativity, self-expression, imagination (Vygotsky, 2004; 2007), conceptual thinking (Lantolf, 2015), self-regulation as well as agency (Wertsch, 1998). / A Escrita Criativa em Inglês (ECI) não tem sido extensivamente pesquisada no Brasil. Há poucos cursos sobre ECI em universidades brasileiras de Letras, e ainda menos publicações disponíveis nesta área (Myers, 2006; Morley, 2007; Blythe e Sweet, 2008; Healey, 2009; Oberholzer, 2014). De acordo com a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases Educacionais do Brasil (LDB), a criatividade deve ser compreendida como uma das habilidades fundamentais para se desenvolver a educação brasileira, do ensino fundamental ao superior. Referente ao ensino superior, a LDB estabeleceu a importância de estimular a criação cultural, a ampliação do pensamento criativo, o aprimoramento das habilidades criativas e as capacidades cognitivas. No entanto, pouquíssimas instituições brasileiras forneceram aos seus alunos de graduação disciplinas de ECI e/ou cursos extracurriculares com foco no desenvolvimento da escrita criativa de seus alunos. A Universidade de São Paulo (USP) é uma dessas poucas instituições. Por essas razões, um curso de Escrita Criativa Fanfictional em Inglês (ECFI) foi desenvolvido e ministrado na USP no final de 2016. Este curso teve 5 participantes, todos estudantes de graduação em Letras da USP. Os objetivos do curso de ECFI e, também, desta pesquisa foram identificar os conceitos desses alunos sobre criatividade, fanfictions e cursos de escrita criativa. Juntamente com essas identificações, os outros objetivos foram a investigação da ampliação desses conceitos pelos alunos de ECFI e o desenvolvimento de suas escritas criativas fanfictionais. A metodologia desta pesquisa envolveu a organização e o ensino da Escrita Criativa Fanfictional em inglês em um curso extracurricular na USP. Para alcançar os objetivos desta pesquisa, a organização deste curso foi baseada na teoria sociocultural vygotskiana (Vygotsky, 2004; 2007). Os dados coletados indicaram que os estudantes da ECFI desenvolveram a criatividade, a autoexpressão, a imaginação (Vygotsky, 2004; 2007), o pensamento conceitual (Lantolf, 2015), a autorregulação e a agência (Wertsch, 1998).

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study looked at the implementation of a collaborative learning model at two schools in Sydney designed to realise the principles recommended by reform documents such as the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and policy documents including Numeracy, A Priority for All (DETYA, 2000). A total of 158 year seven and year eight students ranging in age from 12 to 15 years old from two schools participated in the study. In all, seven classroom teachers participated in the study each completing two topics using the collaborative learning model. Four research questions were the focus of the current study. Three research questions were drawn from eight principles identified in the literature regarding what constitutes effective mathematics learning. These questions related to the nature of collaboration evident in each classroom, the level of motivation and self-regulation displayed by students in the different types of classrooms and the relationship between learning mathematics within the collaborative learning model and real-world mathematics. A final research question examined the degree to which the concerns of teachers relating to preparing students for examinations are met within the collaborative learning model. Several different data collection strategies were adopted to develop a picture of the different forms of activity evident in each classroom and the changes that took place in each classroom during and after the implementation of the collaborative learning model. These included classroom observations, interviews with student and teacher participants, questionnaires and obtaining test results. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to reduce the data collected. Factor scores and test results were compared using t-tests, ANOVAs and Mann Whitney nonparametric tests. Data collected from interviews and classroom observations were analysed using a grounded approach beginning with the open coding of phenomena. Leont’ev’s theoretical approach to activity systems (1972; 1978) was then used to describe the changing nature of classroom activity with the introduction of the collaborative learning model. Within the collaborative classrooms there were a greater number of mathematical voices participating in classroom discussions, a breaking down of traditional roles held by teachers and students, and dominant patterns of collaboration evident in each classroom reflecting pre-existing cultural ways of doing. Furthermore, there was some quantitative evidence suggesting that student levels of critical thinking, self-regulation and help seeking increased and students were also observed regulating their own learning as well as the learning of others. Classroom practice was also embedded in the cultural practice of preparing topic tests, enabling students to use mathematics within the context of a work group producing a shared outcome. Finally, there was quantitative evidence that students in some of the collaborative classes did not perform as well as students in traditional classrooms on topic tests. Comments from students and teachers, however, suggested that for some students the collaborative learning model enabled them to learn more effectively, although other students were frustrated by the greater freedom and lack of direction. Future research could investigate the effectiveness of strategies to overcome this frustration and the relationship between different types of collaboration and developing mathematical understanding.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate how students, teachers and special teachers use, or may want to use, mobile phones as a resource in everyday schoolwork. An analysis of the result was made base on two main theories. One i Säljös theory about the sociocultural perspective, where artefacts play an important part in the devolopment of human society. The other is Laurillardss thougts of social learning and the use of technology in teaching. The methods used were inquiries and semi-structured interwiews with individuals and groups. The result shows that students in compulsory school use the mobile phone as a calculator and för listening to music as a means to concentrate. Senior high school students use the mobile phone as a calculator, to seek information on the internet, and to communicate aboute schoolwork. The older the students, the more they appreciated the use of the mobile phones calendar and its reminder function. Both students, teachers and special teachers could see benefits in using the mobile phone in schoolwork, for example using apps, making recordings and reading e-books. Older students, and some teachers, wanted to use the mobile phone as a means for accessing shared knowledge.

The qualitative case study on which this thesis is based was designed to investigate the relationship between migration and identity construction of three young people who immigrated as children and adolescents, two of them as refugees, from the former Yugoslavia to Germany and finally to Canada. The autobiographical narrative interviews of the manifold migration stories were mainly analyzed from the point of view of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, which considers speech and thought in a close relation, to illustrate how identity must be understood as both individual and social in nature, and as a complex narrative action. The socialization processes in all countries of migration were viewed in order to investigate how the previous acculturation affects the cultural identity of the young people today and how it is unfolded in the story. The study reveals that these subjects with threefold migration position themselves between their lifeworlds which enable them not only to say where they belong to or which is their homeland but to answer the simple question “Who am I?” This is revealed by the way of their narration which contains a lot of contradictions. The individuals deal differently with their dynamic identity construction, while one of them seems to suffer under the instability of his identity, and of being different in all his lifeworlds, other subjects however can see advantages related to it. The way how they deal with this dynamics has a crucial influence on their view of their migrations today and consequently on their identity construction as a narrative action.

Abstract This study in second language acquisition (SLA) investigates the influence of self-portrayal of language learners in an interactive online L2 learning environment from a social-interactionist research perspective. This thesis has a mainly theoretical focus and will integrate concepts of online communication with SLA methodology. This work reviews some classical perspectives on chats and message boards as environment for online communication in chapter two and develops a list of features to classify them from a second language acquisition perspective. In order to assist the main argument of the thesis that an integrated view of learners within a learning context is necessary to fully use the advantages of an interactive online learning environment, the second language acquisition model of Marysia Johnson (2004) is discussed in chapter three. Using the premises of the model, which result from the application of Lev Vygotskys sociocultural theory and Mikhail Bakhtins dialogized heteroglossia, key features for the later data analysis are pointed out. Those are the dismissal of the separation of language competence and language performance, a view of language that exceeds mere morphosyntactical concerns and the overcoming of the mainstream mentalist SLA approach in favor of a socioculturally oriented dialogical language learning model. The approach of Bonny Norton (2000) to identity is used as an analytical framework to complete Johnsons model developing a methodology for chapter four. The data analysis in chapter five is used to prove the validity of the model in showing that the developed model is applicable for the analysis of an online context. After a description of the course environment and a preliminary analysis, an in depth qualitative approach is used to point out the links between sociocultural theory and identity theory. Afterwards, I will give a short summary of my most important results and finish my thesis with some suggestions for further research.