VIGOSTKY ZPD

According
to
Vigotsky
and
his
zone
of
proximal
development, how would you relate it to your year syllabus?
Our main as teachers of a foreign language is that the students could be able to
communicate in that foreign language, this aim appears in the LOMCE 8/2013
of the 9th of December, the RD 126/2014 of 28 th of February and in the Decree
108/2014 of the 4th of July.
Our educational programme is based on Constructivist theory in which students
construct their knowledge from their previous knowledge, following Ausubels
book The Psychology of Meaningful Learning C&Sharon. 1963.
The Zone of Proximal Development was a concept used by Lev Vigotsky in his
book Language and Thought MA: Mit press Cambridge 1963. This means the
difference in what the student can do with the help of others and what can do by
them. This theory was deeply developed later by other authors and it is called
now Scaffolding. Scaffolding is directly connected to Communicative approach
in which the motivation of the student is essential, all skills are practiced at the
same time and the student is the centre of the learning teaching process. On
the other hand scaffolding is also directly related to Cooperative Learning,
which is a teaching strategy developed by Spencer Kagan (see his book The
Structural Approach to Cooperative Learning. Ed. New York. 1985) in which is
extremely important to work in structured groups of cooperative work,
homogeneous among them and heterogeneous between themselves. There are
some premises that are necessary for these kinds of groups: positive
interdependence (everyone counts and every work is necessary for the exit of
the group, If I win you win too), individual accountability, face-to-face promoted
interaction, group processing and appropriate use of collaborative skills
(leadership, conflict management, etc).
Why is directly related to all these theories and strategies? Because scaffolding
means to construct knowledge, from previous knowledge the students must
know how to learn and build their knowledge. The teacher, the mentors or a
peer can help to do it. It is based in tasks that the students must finish to solve a
problem or ending.
Lev Vigotsky views interaction with peers as an effective way of developing
skills and strategies. He suggests that teachers use cooperative learning
exercises where less competent children develop with help from more skilful
peers - within the zone of proximal development.
To understand this better lets move to a practice example imagine that we are
going to develop reading in a class of 3rd of primary education.
Instead of telling the students to read a chapter of a book and then make a
short essay of what they have understood, I am going to use scaffolding or the
zone of proximal development to make some activities. I will bear in mind
Gardner Multiple intelligences (Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple
Intelligences. Basic Books. 1983) because not all the students are good at all of

them but so these intelligences can be use to help the students with a lack of
any of them.
I will give to my students a fragment of the book The 3 Little Pigs; I will have
previously adapted this fragment to their knowledge.
In the first session I will ask questions about the book, general open-ended
questions to know what do they know about the topic. I will try to create
expectations.
The second activity will be given the new vocabulary for them to understand
better the reading. Before they look into a dictionary they will try to guess the
words that I will explain them by mimic or showing photos, once they get the
meaning, instead writing the meaning in their mother tongue, they will make
symbols or drawing of the world to retain better the meaning.
The 3rd activity will consist on listening the fragment of the tale. They will have to
focus their attention in understanding not the whole text but the words already
explained and grasp the meaning in context.
The 4th activity will be give them the fragment adapted to their age and
knowledge and first they will read it individually and later in pairs.
The 5th activity will be to find new vocabulary that they dont understand
individually and then work in groups to guess this vocabulary. Once they
finished it will be written in the blackboard for the rest of the class.
The 6th activity will be to make short sentences that summarize the fragment,
using the structure have got.
The 7th and last activity will be to complete a task by making a picture
individually and different from their group mate to show to the other groups and
try them to understand the fragment only with pictures and bubbles.
Qualitative instruments such as observation and the activities, self-assessment
and group assessment will be taken as evaluation of these activities.
To conclude, you have slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson
may, in fact, take longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality
and the experience much more rewarding for all involved. As we are working in
cooperative groups, the zone of proximal development between what the
students know and dont know can be worked with the guidance of a peer or the
teacher. Once the students know how to do it without the help of others we can
take out this scaffolding and let the students complete the tasks on their own.