A ZONA DE DESENVOLVIMENTO PROXIMAL EM CONTEXTOS DE ENSINO-APRENDIZAGEM DE LÍNGUA ESTRANGEIRA: DEFINIÇÃO, DIFERENTES INTERPRETAÇÕES, PERSPECTIVAS DE ESTUDO

Abstract

Taking into consideration Vygotsky’s influence in the area of Applied Linguistics, present in the social interactionist approach of ESL PCNS, the comprehensive teacher formation project developed by PUC-SP (Celani, 2003), and research on the teaching/learning of foreign languages based on a social cultural perspective (Ferreira, 2005; Lantolf & Pohener, 2008), this paper aims to work with the concept of ZPD, by discussing its classical definition (Vygotsky, 1978), other interpretations given to it (Wertsch, 1984; Kinginger, 2002; Chaiklin, 2003; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), and the way it has been used in the field of teaching/learning foreign languages in Brazil.