Promoting metapragmatic development through assessment in the zone of proximal development

Rémi A van Compernolle ^[1] ; Celeste Kinginger ^[2]
1. [1] Carnegie Mellon University
  
  Carnegie Mellon University
  
  City of Pittsburgh, Estados Unidos
2. [2] Pennsylvania State University
  
  Pennsylvania State University
  
  Borough of State College, Estados Unidos
Localización: Language teaching research, ISSN 1362-1688, Vol. 17, Nº. 3, 2013 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Pedagogy), págs. 282-302
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- The assessment of second language (L2) pragmatic competence typically involves questionnaires, such as discourse completion tasks. This article describes a novel approach to using questionnaires to assess L2 metapragmatic capacities while simultaneously promoting their development: engaging learners in cooperative interaction as they complete the task. Following dynamic assessment principles, cooperative interaction reveals both fully formed and emerging competencies (i.e. zone of proximal development) while at the same time furthering their continued growth. This study draws on data collected during a concept-based pedagogical enrichment program in which US university students of French were learning the concepts of social distance and power hierarchies as illustrated by the second-person pronouns tu and vous ‘you’. We present a case study of one learner, Nikki, to show how support provided by a tutor around one questionnaire item (i.e. choosing tu or vous in an ambiguous situation) both assessed and promoted her developing conceptual knowledge about the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and how these are indexed through language.