Second Language Concept-Based Pragmatics Instruction: The Role of Languaging

Expanding on her work on collaborative dialogue and language learning in the zone of proximal development (ZPD), Swain has explored the role of ‘languaging’ in developing students’ understanding of complex grammatical concepts (e.g. active, middle and passive voice in French; Swain et al., 2009). Languaging involves articulating one’s understanding of the concept to be learned – or externalization in Vygotskian terms – so that it can become an object of conscious reflection and modification in internalization. Swain et al. (2009: 5) describe languaging as ‘a form of verbalization used to mediate the solution(s) to complex problems and tasks’.