Interactionist Theory, Vygotsky and Collaborative Learning

Interactionist Theory    

Interactionists argue that  language development  is both biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others.

The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others" ( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et al.,2002,p.362).

The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev Vygotsky.Interactionists focus on Vygotsky's model of collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older people  can help children both cognitively and linguistically ( Shaffer,et.al,2002).

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