CONTENTS Introducing sociocultural theory / James P. Lantolf ... 1 1 Sociocultural contributions to understanding the foreign and second language classroom / Richard Donato ... 27 2 Rethinking interaction in SLA : Developmentally appropriate assistance in the zone of proximal development and the acquisition of L2 grammar / Amy Snyder Ohta ... 51 3 Subjects speak out : How learners position themselves in a psycholinguistic task / Regina Roebuck ... 79 4 The output hypothesis and beyond : Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue / Merrill Swain ... 97 5 Playfulness as mediation in communicative language teaching in a Vietnamese classroom / Patricia N. Sullivan ... 115 6 Social discursive constructions of self in L2 learning / Caire Kramsch ... 133 7 Second language learning as participation and the (re)construction of selves / Aneta Pavlenko ; James P. Lantolf ... 155 8 Side affects : The strategic development of professional satisfaction / Deryn P. Verity ... 179 9 The appropriation of gestures of the abstract by L2 learners / Steven G. McCafferty ; Mohammed K. Ahmed ... 199 10 Secondianguageacquisitiontheoryandthetruth(s) about relativity / Steven L. Thorne ... 219 11 From input to affordance : Social interactive learning from an ecological perspective / Leo van Lier ... 245 Bibliography ... 261 Index ... 287