Laura Thurman

Module ITE101 Theories for Literacy

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Silliman (2000) suggests that Vygotskys notion of scaffolds has played a vital role within the development of literacy and language, this scaffolding theory suggests that a child can experiment new concepts and strategies which they otherwise could not do. Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture affecting/shaping cognitive development - this contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages and content of development. (Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way that Piaget does). Vygotsky is a strong believer that social learning comes before normal learning. And therefore in the first 6-12 months of a childs life, rather than the child learning just from their parents Vygotsky would suggest that the child should be playing with other children and interacting with other adults before being prompted with pictures of objects and faces. When it comes to the 12-18 months Vygotsky (1978), much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful tutor. The tutor may model behaviors and/or provide verbal instructions for the child. Vygotsky refers to this as co-operative or collaborative dialogue. The child seeks to understand the actions or an instruction provided by the tutor (often the parent or teacher) then internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance. Between 2 and 4 years it is Vygotskys belief that each intellectual function a child goes through must be relived twice, once on a social level, between two people, and another through a personal internal level, therefore all activities that may occur must be done and understood on a social level before a child can even begin o think about doing it on its own, for example between 2 and 4 years a child may need help to relate pictures and a story, but as soon as the child can do this with somebody, they then need to experience it themselves. This also applies from 4-7 years activities such as writing their own name, would first need to be copied off somebody else and once the child was comfortable with that they would then need to try and write their name on their own.