Maria De Guerrero

Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Imitation has a fundamental role in learning and development within Vygotskyan sociocultural theory. In this study, we adopt a sociocultural theory view of imitation as an intentional, meaningful, and transformative process leading learners to higher developmental levels. The study centers on instances of imitation that occurred as adult learners o...

Traditionally, the study of second language (L2) acquisition has focused on learners' use of speech for social or public purposes (as in writing for an audience or engaging in conversation).Keywords:bilingualism;esl/efl;language teaching;psycholinguistics;second language acquisition;sociocultural language studies

Though commonly associated with talking to oneself in silence, inner speech is a much more encompassing and consequential phenomenon than internal self-talk. Inner speech is a socially derived mechanism that makes possible verbal (symbolic) thought. Lev Vygotsky (1986), who may be considered to date the foremost proponent of a theory of inner speec...

Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development and its related scaffolding metaphor serve as the theoretical basis for the study of peer collaboration in the English as a Second Language (ESL) writing classroom. The purpose of the study was to observe the mechanisms by which strategies of revision take shape and develop in the interpsychologica...

Roughly 30 years ago researchers in the second language acquisition (SLA) field started to take a focused interest in the study of inner speech (IS) and private speech (PS) processes in second language (L2) learning and use. The purpose of this review is to assess the status of current research and the progress made during the last ten years on the...

This paper describes shadow-reading, a pedagogical technique aimed at fostering reading comprehension and retention in second (L2) or foreign language (FL) classrooms. The technique is an adaptation of “conversational shadowing,” a procedure which requires listeners to repeat what their interlocutors say in an attempt to remember the content of the...

In this chapter we draw insights from our previous empirical research on metaphor analysis and discuss theoretical aspects and methodological challenges concerning the use of metaphor in L2 education. Two of our previous studies are summarized: one on teachers’ metaphorical conceptualizations of ESL teaching and learning and another one on the meta...

Unlike research in reading which focuses on data from individuals reading independently, this study identified second language (L2) college students' reading processes that occurred within dyadic peer interactions during shadow-reading, a collaborative procedure based on repetition and summarizing. Also, written retellings (immediate and delayed) w...

Unlike research in reading which focuses on data from individuals reading independently, this study identified second language (L2) college students’ reading processes that occurred within dyadic peer interactions during shadow-reading, a collaborative procedure based on repetition and summarizing. Also, written retellings (immediate and delayed) w...

How to provide appropriate feedback to students on their writing has long been an area of central significance to teachers and educators. Feedback in Second Language Writing: Context and Issues provides scholarly articles on the topic by leading researchers, who explore topics such as the socio-cultural assumptions that participants bring to the wr...

The main purpose of this study was to explore the early stages of L2 inner speech development. A secondary aim was to test the effectiveness of the diary and stimulated recall techniques in the elucidation of L2 inner speech phenomena. Over a period of four months, 16 beginning ESL college students kept diaries on the inner speech they had experien...

The use of metaphor is widespread among language teachers and in language learning theory. Metaphors also play a significant role as vehicles for reflection and awareness raising among educators. This study, framed within a socio-cultural theory approach, explored the basic conceptualizations of ESL teaching and learning reflected in metaphorical r...

This paper reviews the use of metaphor analysis as a research tool in education, specifically second or foreign language (L2/FL) education, recommending the application of sociocultural theory as a coherent framework to explain how L2/FL teachers construct metaphorical conceptualizations of their profession. It presents examples from a study suppor...

This study follows up on a study of the issue of second-language (L2) inner speech as it manifests in mental rehearsal among advanced L2 learners. The purpose of the study was to find out to what extent advanced L2 learners experience inner speech as mental rehearsal and to identify characteristics and functions of such inner speech. (Author/VWL)

This Study sought to investigate the impact of peer revision on Writers' final drafts in two rhetorical modes, narration and persuasion, among 14 Spanish-speaking ESL college students. Two questions were addressed (1) How were revisions made in peer sessions incorporated by writers in their final versions? (2) How were troublesources revised accord...

Little is known about what actually happens when two L2 students are involved in peer revision of written texts. This article reports the results of a study conducted among Spanish-speaking students in Puerto Rico which sought to investigate (a) the kind of revision activities students engage in while working in pairs, (b) the strategies peers empl...

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ABSTRACT The din phenomenon, first discussed in the literature of second language acquisition by Krashen, is a form of mental rehearsal in which words, sounds, and phrases of the second language are spontaneously replayed in the mind. This paper reports the results of a survey on the din phenomenon in which 52 Spanish-speaking ESL college students...