REFLECTION ABOUT SOCIAL INTERACTIONISM

We talked about social interactionism that week.What ı learnt from social

interactionism is that it stresses the enviroment and the context in which the
language is being learned.It gives importance to pragmatics of language rather
than grammar.

Accordıng to social interactionist;language is not an innate ability,children

born into a social word,and learning occurs through interactions with other
people.In other saying,language develops in interacting your enviroment and
through these interactions we make our own senses of the world.There are two
defender of it,Lev Vygotsky and Reuven Feuerstein.

Vygotsky emphasized the importance of language in interacting with

people,not just speech,but signs and symbols as well.What ı have about Reuven
Feuerstein is that he has a theory called "structural cognitive modifiability" in
which he emphazise that a person can develop his/her cognitive capacity under
suitable circumstances even he/she seems to lack of some skills and ability
because of bad social enviroment conditions.

I will benefit from all of these theories through my teaching life.First of

all,thanks to these theories ı understand the importance of my responsibilities in
21st century.Using Vygotsky's bolistic approach,ı will present the lesson in a
unity.Also taking into consideration his mediation theory ı will behave like a
mediator and try to shape my students' language skills effectively.And based on
his "zone of proximal" theory,ı will try to create an reasonable atmosphere to
learn.After learning "structural cognitive modifiability" of Reuven Feuerstein,ı
won't have bias about my students capacity because ı know that a negative social
enviroment can affect the students capacity negatively but this does not mean
that this capacity can't develop under any circumstances.Just the opposite ı can
help my students about developing their abilities and capacities by creating a
suitable atmosphere.If ı couldnt do this,ı would need change my way of teaching.

As a conclusion,each person is unique and their feelings are

important.Forcing them to speak or learn,ı cant be succesful.Instead ı will tell
them that language cannot be limited to classroom and they need to use it their
daily life willingly.

Hülya ALTINTAŞ