Abstract
Using a discourse analytic approach from the work of Hoey (1991) and a dual processing model from Wray (2000), this paper compares the language produced by the same classes of children when they are engaged in role-play and when they are playing rule-based games. We find that role-play tends to be richer in æfrozenÆ pair parts, where the responses are predictable, and that rule-based games are more conducive to dispreferred responses and bound exchanges. Overall, this means that role-plays appear to create æshort, fatÆ exchanges, while rule-based games generate ætall, thinÆ ones. We argue the transition from discourse complexity to grammatical complexity demonstrates what Vygotsky (1978, 1987) called a zone of proximal development (ZPD), conceived of not as a mechanism for learning in general but rather as a specific link between microgenetic learning and ontogenetic development. Interpreting this cross-sectional view of the data ontogenetically not only provides an explanation for why role-play seems to be developmentally prior to rule-based games, but can also help explain how the intra-mental rules of grammar are precipitated from inter-mental relations in discourse. For children, foreign language learning allows a game-like inversion of first language acquisition processes, making rules explicit and discourse roles much less concrete.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).