APLNG 597A: Language, Communication, and Activity Theory

Fall 2002

Comments or Questions? Contact Jim Lantolf and/or Steve Thorne

Pennsylvania State University

* Note: Reading may shift over the course of the term

Vygotsky and practical-critical activity

Newman, F., Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky. New York: Routledge.

• Chapter1: Vygotsky and psychology
• Chapter 2: The laboratory as methodology
• Chapter 3: Practice: Vygotsky's tool-and-result methodology and psychology

Activity and history in Soviet Psychology

Minick, N. (1997). The early history of the Vygoskian school: The relationship between mind and activity. In M. Cole, Y. Engeström, and O. Vasquez (eds.), Mind, culture, and activity: Seminal papers from the laboratory of comparative human cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 117-127.

Lee, B. (1985). Intellectual origins of Vygotsky's semiotic analysis. In J. Wertsch, J. (ed.), Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 66-93.

Scribner, S. (1985). Vygotsky's uses of history. In J. Wertsch, J. (ed.), Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 119-145.

Tulviste, P. (1999). Activity as an explanatory principle in cultural psychology. In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard, & U. J. Jensen, (eds.), Activity theory and social practice. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 66-78.

Additional Reading:

Garai, L., Kocski, M. (1989). The principle of social relations and the principle of activity. Soviet Psychology 27/4:50-69.

For an extensive set of on-line resources, visit the following:

• Lev Vygotsky Archive, 1896-1934
• Vygotsky Centennial Project

Activity in Davydov and A.N. Leont'ev

Davydov, V. (1999). The content and unsolved problems of activity theory. In Y Engeströ;m (ed.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 39-52.

Davydov, V., Radzikhovskii, L. (1985). Vygotsky's theory and the activity-oriented approach in psychology. In J. Wertsch, J. (ed.), Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 35-65.

Gal'perin, P. I. (1977). The problem of activity in Soviet Psychology. Theses of papers presented at the 5th all-union pedagogical congress of the association of psychologists. Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, Part I, p. 19-40.

Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. Wertsch (ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe.

Additional Reading:

Davydov, V. (1999). A new approach to the interpretation of activity structure and content. In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard, & U. J. Jensen, (eds.), Activity theory and social practice. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 39-50.

Leont'ev, A. N. (1977). Activity and consciousness. Chapter in Philosophy in the USSR, Problems of dialectical materialism. Progress Publishers. Available on-line: http://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/1977/leon1977.htm

Tolman, C. (2001). The origins of activity as a category in the philosophies of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx. In S. Chaiklin (ed.), The theory and practice of cultural-historical psychology. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 84-92.

For a biographical sketch and full manuscripts, visit the A.N. Leont'ev Archive

Marx, mind, and the ideal

Lektorsky, V. (1999). Historical change of the notion of activity: Philosophical presupposition. In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard, & U. J. Jensen, (eds.), Activity theory and social practice. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 100-113.

Bakhurst, D., (1995). On the social constitution of mind: Bruner, Ilyenkov, and the defence of cultural psychology. Mind, Culture, and Activity 2/3: 158-171.

Jones, P. (2001). The ideal in cultural-historical activity theory: Issues and perspectives. In S. Chaiklin (ed.), The theory and practice of cultural-historical psychology. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 283-315.

For a biographical sketch and full manuscripts, visit the Evald Ilyenkov Archive, 1924 -1979

For Marx's philosophical writings, see his early (1845) and late (1886) works at the Marx-Engels Library

Communication and Activity

Leontiev, A. A. (1981). Chap 11: Recent developments in speech activity theory and its relevance for the teaching of Russian as a foreign language. In Psychology and the language learning process. New York: Pergamon Press.

Bakhurst, D. (1997). Activity, consciousness, and communication. In M. Cole, Y. Engeström, and O. Vasquez (eds.), Mind, culture, and activity: Seminal papers from the laboratory of comparative human cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 147-163.

Engeström, R. (1995). Voices as communicative action. Mind, Culture, and Activity 2/3: 192-215.

Leont'ev, D. A. (1992). Joint activity, communication, and interaction (Toward well-grounded "pedagogy of cooperation"). Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 3/2:43-58.

• First reading reaction journal due (3 articles)

Language, thought, and activity

Marková, I. (1994). Sociogenesis of language: Perspectives on dialogism and on activity theory. In W. de Graaf and R. Maier (eds.), Sociogenesis reexamined. New York: Springer-Verlag, 27-46.

Lee, B., Hickmann, M. (1983). Language, thought, and self in Vygotsky's developmental theory. In B. Lee and G. Noam (eds.), Developmental approaches to the self. New York: Plenum, 343-377.

Newman, F., Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. New York: Routledge.

• Chapter 6: Reform and revolution in the study of thinking and speech.

If interested, see Newman & Holzman, The relevance of Marx to therapeutics in the 21st century

Language and communicative practice

Hanks, W. (1996). Language and communicative practice. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.

• Chapter 1: Intro
• Chapter 2: The language of Saussure
• Chapter 3: From signs to sentences
• Chapter 4: North American formalism and the problem of meaning
• Chapter 5: Sentences, speech acts, and utterances

Click here for an introduction to the ideas of MAK Halliday and Systemic-Functional Linguistics

W8: 10/17

Marxist philosophy of language and communication: Volosinov and Rommetveit

Hanks, W. (1996). Language and communicative practice. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.

• Chapter 7: Saturation by context

Volosinov, V. N. (1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

• Part II: Toward a Marxist philosophy of language (Chapter 2: Language, speech, and utterance. Chapter 3: Verbal interaction.)
• Part III: Toward a history of forms of utterance in language constructions. (Chapter 1: Theory of utterance and the problems of syntax.)

Rommetveit, R. (1992). Outline of a dialogically based socio-cognitive approach to human cognition and communication. In A. H. Wold (ed.), The dialogic alternative: Towards a theory of language and mind. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, p. 19-44.

Wertsch, J. (1992). A dialogue on message structure: Rommetveit and Bakhtin. In A. H. Wold (ed.), The dialogic alternative: Towards a theory of language and mind. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, p. 65-76.

Additional Reading:

Lee, B., Wertsch, J., Stone, A. (1983). Towards a Vygotkian theory of the self. In B. Lee and G. Noam (eds.), Developmental approaches to the self. New York: Plenum, 309-341.

W9: 10/24

More communicative practice

Hanks, W. (1996). Language and communicative practice. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.

• Chapter 6: Three phenomenologies of language
• Chapter 8: Relativity, reflexivity, and difference
• Chapter 9: Beyond the speaker and the text
• Chapter 10: Elements of communicative practice

• Second reading reaction journal due (3 articles)

No class. Students are invited to attend the Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning Research Working Group, (9th annual meeting) hosted by Florida State University

Activity theory in late modernity

Engeström, Y., & Miettinen, R. (1999). Introduction. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R.L. Punamaki (eds.), Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1-18.

Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R.L. Punamaki (eds.), Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 19-38.

Lektorsky, V. (1999). Activity theory in a new era. In Y Engeström (ed.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 65-69.

Additional Reading:

Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Vahaaho, T. (1999). In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard, & U. J. Jensen (eds.), Activity Theory and Social Practice: Cultural-Historical Approaches. Aarhus University Press, 345-374.

Language and meaning

Jones, P. (manuscript). "The word becoming a deed": The dialectic of "free action" in Vygotsky's tool and sign in the development of the child.

Leont'ev, D. A. (manuscript). The phenomenon of meaning: How psychology can make sense of it.

Leont'ev, D. A. (manuscript). Activity theory approach: Vygotsky in the present.

Hopper, P. (1998). Emergent grammar. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, p. 155-177.

ZPD and play

Newman, F., Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky. New York: Routledge.

• Chapters 4: ZPD: A psychological unit or a revolutionary unity?
• Chapter 5: Playing in/with the ZPD
• Chapter 7: Completing the historical Vygotsky

Hakkarainen, P. (1999). Play and motivation. In Y. Engeström (ed.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 231-249.

• Third reading reaction journal due (3 articles)

Distributed activity and case studies

Freedman, A., Smart, G. (1997). Navigating the current of economic policy: Written genres and the distribution of cognitive work at a financial institution. Mind, Culture, and Activity 4/4: 238-255.

Lompscher, J. (1999). Activity formation as an alternative strategy of instruction. In Y Engeström (ed.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 264-281.

Cubero, M., de la Mata, M. (2001). Activity settings, ways of thinking and discourse modes: An empirical investigation of the heterogeneity of verbal thinking. In S. Chaiklin (ed.), The theory and practice of cultural-historical psychology. Arhuus: Arhuus University Press, p. 218-237.

Hutchins, E., Klausen, T. (1996). Distributed cognition in an airline cockpit. In Y. Engeström, D. Middleton (eds.), Cognition and communication at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 15-34.

Star, S. L. (1996). Working together: Symbolic interactionism, activity theory, and information systems. In Y. Engeström, D. Middleton (eds.), Cognition and communication at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 296-318.

Lantolf, J., Genung, P. (in press). "I'd rather switch than fight": An activity theoretic study of power, success and failure in a foreign language classroom. In C. Kramsch (ed.), Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives. London: Continuum Press.

Garrison, J. (2001). An introduction to Dewey's theory of functional "trans-action": An alternative paradigm for activity theory. Mind, Culture, and Activity 8/4: 275-296.

Miettinen, R. (2001). Artifact mediation in Dewey and in cultural-historical activity theory. Mind, Culture, and Activity 8/4:297-308.

Newman, F., Holzman, L. (1999). Beyond narrative to performed conversation. In L. Holzman (ed.), Performing psychology. New York: Routledge, p. 87-110.

Newman, F., Holzman, L. (1997). Chapter 3: Radically reforming modern epistemology. In The end of knowing: A new developmental way of learning. New York: Routledge, p. 47-82.

• In-class conference and course wrap-up
• Final paper due