A sociocultural perspective on second language writing teacher cognition: A Vietnamese teacher's narrative

• Published in: System (Linköping) Vol. 78; pp. 79 - 90
• Main Author: Ngo, Xuan Minh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Beliefs; Cognition & reasoning; English as a second language; English as a second language instruction; English teachers; Language teacher cognition; Language teachers; Language thought relationship; Mediation; Narrative inquiry; Narratives; Second language teachers; Second language writing; Second language writing instruction; Sociocultural theory; Teacher attitudes; Vietnam; Writing instruction; Vietnam; Vietnam; Narrative inquiry; Sociocultural theory; Language teacher cognition; Second language writing
• ISSN: 0346-251X; 1879-3282
• DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2018.08.002

Despite increased attention to social and historical dimensions in language teacher cognition research, the second language writing teacher cognition literature remains dominated by the cognitivist tradition that separates teachers' beliefs from their practices. To address this mismatch, this paper proposes to view second language writing teacher cognition through the lens of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, particularly its genetic method and concept of mediation. Based on these frameworks, the study aims to reveal the major shifts in a Vietnamese English language teacher's cognition about second language writing and the mediating resources involved. Following the narrative design, the participant's professional life story was first constructed with data from a series of interviews and various national and institutional documents. Her narrative was then subject to thematic analysis guided by the sociocultural theory concepts. It was found that her cognition changes followed a complex, non-linear trajectory, and there were dialectical interrelationships between these shifts. Moreover, these shifts were mediated by humans, concepts, and artifacts, whose influence was simultaneous and dialectical. Via analytic generalization in case studies, the paper proposes two models to illustrate firstly the chronological developments and secondly the socially mediated and dialectical nature of second language writing teacher cognition.