I thought this discussion list was about L1 teaching and learning about
the nature of language.  I am will to discuss teaching L2 learners.  I
know the L2 literature is filled with claims, very unconvincing, that
learning a second language should be like learning a first language.

When I responded to Johanna about "explicit grammar instruction," I
really don't know what kind of teaching she was referring to.  Within
the L2 field, there is a growing interesting in focus-on-form in the
classroom.  Several years ago there was an entire number in Studies in
Second Language Acquisition devoted to it and there is the recent
Cambridge U. P. volume edited by Doughty and Williams.

Without some focus-on-form I don't think an L2 learner can move beyond
what Klein and Perdue have called the Basic Variety.

So, I am not sure what Judy Diamondstone is referring to when she refers
to the following article:

> Jim Gee has a nice article on this controversy over explicit/implicit
> instruction, which many of you must know:
>
> "First language acquisition as a guide for
> theories of learning and pedagogy" in _Linguistics & Education
> 6_ (331-354) 1994

I am aware of the increasing interest in L2 teaching circles in
Vygotsky, but I have never been able to figure out why.  (The best use
of Vygotsky I know of is in Linda Flower's "Writer-based prose"
article.  This is about L1 writing. )

> Vygotsky is also very useful for conceptualizing the role of language
> in learning & development.

What are the problems that researchers in L1/L2 learning are concerned
with which a Vygotsky perspective seems to provide insights about?

Would someone direct me to a specific issue for which a Vygotskyan
perspective has been shown to be particularly insightful?

Bob Yates, Central Missouri State University