Contents 7
Conventions of Transcription 9
Establishing the Theoretical Framework 11
The Complementary Contributions of Halliday and Vygotsky to a \u201cLanguage- based Theory of Learning\u201d 13
Long-Term Goals and the Choice of a Genetic Approach 13
Language and Social Activity 16
Learning Language: Appropriating Culture 21
Language and Intellectual Development 31
Language and Thinking in School 38
The Complementary Nature of the Two Theories 45
The Educational Consequences of Sociosemantic Variation 46
Enculturation: Cultural Reproduction or Individual Empowerment? 50
The Intellectual Consequences of Language- based Learning in School 54
Action, Speech, and Thought 56
In Search of Knowledge 61
Prologue 62
Knowledge: What is the Nature of this Abstraction? 63
A Genetic Approach to the Development of Knowledge 65
The Emergence of Different Modes of Knowing in Human History 68
The Development of Theoretical Knowledge 71
Metaknowing 75
Knowledge as Representing 77
Where Is Knowledge to Be Located? 82
The Nature of Knowledge: Some Tentative Conclusions 86
The Development of Knowing: An Ontogenetic Perspective 89
Knowing and Understanding 93
Schooling and the Construction of Knowledge and Understanding 98
Discourse and Knowing in the Classroom 108
The Role of Language in Human Development 108
Language as Mediator of Individual Mental Development 111
Bakhtinian Perspectives on Discourse 112
Progressive Discourse: The Dialogue of Knowing 116
Knowledge Building and Progressive Discourse 122
Modalities of Discourse for Knowledge Building 124
Social and Inner Speech Revisited 126
Discourse and Knowledge Building in the Classroom: Some Research Perspectives 128
Communities of Inquiry 131
Modes and Modalities of Discourse 135
Discourse, Learning, and Teaching 143
Text, Talk, and Inquiry: Schooling As Semiotic Apprenticeship 145
Learning in School: A Semiotic Apprenticeship 148
The Distinguishing Features of Written Text 151
The Complementary Roles of Talk and Text 155
Building Bridges Between Ways of Knowing 157
Making the Form Fit the Function 161
Talk, Text, and Activity 165
Inquiry and Education 167
Conclusion 173
Putting a Tool to Different Uses: 177
The Organization of Classroom Activity 179
The Organization of Classroom Discourse 182
Applications of Hallidayan Theory to the Classroom 184
Articulating the Relationship between Activity and Discourse 186
Applying the Model: Co-constructing the Meaning of Time 191
Reviewing the Unit: What Have We Learned? 204
A Reevaluation of the IRF Exchange 209
Conclusion 214
From Guessing to Predicting: 219
The Importance of Predicting When Carrying Out an Experiment 219
Setting the Activity in its Curricular Context 222
Emerging Goals and Their Operationalization in Discourse 225
The Learning Opportunities Provided by the Discourse 226
What Resources Are the Participants Drawing on to Enable Them to Contribute so Productively? 229
On Guessing, Estimating, and Predicting 231
Toward a Dialogic Conception of Education 237
Using the Tool-kit of Discourse in the Activity of Learning and Teaching 241
I 242
Developing the Framework: The Primacy of Activity 242
Discourse as Semiotic Tool 245
Describing Discourse in the Classroom: Relating Action and Genre 248
Discourse in the Classroom: Exploring the Significance of Follow- up 251
The Two Levels of Teaching 252
II 254
The Follow-up: Teaching as Responsive Intervention 254
Determining the Goals of Classroom Activities 259
A Comparison of Two Episodes of Classroom Discourse 263
Conclusion: Education as Transformation 273
Making Meaning with Text: 277
Speech and the Development of Writing 277
The Development of Writing: An Ontogenetic Perspective 280
The Development of Writing: A Historical Perspective 281
The Development of Scientific English 282
Writing and the Development of Higher Mental Functions 285
Writing a Text: The Microgenetic Level 288
The Interdependence of the Four Genetic Levels 293
Writing and Learning to Write: An Expanded Vygotskyan Perspective 296
Learning and Teaching in the ZPD 301
On Learning With and From Our Students 303
The Authors 303
A Sociocultural Framework for Learning and Teaching 304
The Power of an Elastic Band 306
Exploring the Zone of Proximal Development (zpd) 309
Adult Assistance in the zpd 309
Independent Group Activities 310
Whole-Class Review 312
Peer Assistance in the zpd 314
The Key Role of Language 318
Teachers Learning in the zpd 319
The Zone of Proximal Development and Its Implications for Learning and Teaching 323
Assessment 325
Instruction 327
Semiotic Mediation 329
Internalization: From Inter-mental to Intra-mental 330
The Significant Other 333
Telos: The End-Point of Development 334
The Role of the Teacher 338
Conclusion: Toward a New Conception of Education 340
Appendix I 345
A Social Constructivist Model of Learning and Teaching 345
Appendix II 347
Categories for the Analysis of Discourse 347
References 349
Index of Authors 365
Index of Subjects 370