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First versus subsequent foreign language development in situated interaction from a Vygotskyan SCT perspective: microgenetic analysis of Persian-speaking learners

ABSTRACT The present study compared L2 and L3 learners of the same additional language in two parallel case studies framed within a Vygotskyan SCT perspective to examine how foreign language learners’ background knowledge impacts on the path of their development. Interactive data were collected on the development of interrogative formation by four Persian learners of English (N = 2) and French (N = 2) in sessions tutored by a Persian L1, English L2, French L3 instructor with experience in teaching both languages. Data were collected, analysed, and interpreted employing Vygotsky’s microgenetic method and his constructs of ZPD and mediation. Four aspects of language development were compared across the cases and studies: (a) responsiveness to instruction, (b) responsiveness to graded mediation, (c) exploiting current affordances for further development and (d) approach to task accomplishment. The findings showed that differing linguistic profiles made the subjects fundamentally different from the outset. The L3ers were more sensitive to the structures, could extract more from the instructions/interactions, better able to exploit their resources to make meaningful connections between past and present, and experienced a faster-paced, more efficient transition of the structures from inter to intrapsychological functioning. Additionally, heightened metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness equipped them to more systematically approach challenging tasks.