Writing from a Sociocultural Theory of Mind Perspective

This paper reviews the studies on teaching writing from a sociocultural framework. Vygotskyan Sociocultural theory of mind (SCT) has been presented as an alternative to mainstream research in second and/or foreign language learning and teaching contexts. This paper examines key elements of writing from a SCT perspective and reviews the studies on writing according to their orientations. It groups the studies based on their research focus and addresses their limitations. Two basic limitations of the studies are (a) the vagueness in concepts and (b) (over)use of first language. Examples about these limitations are given in the study. The study closes with suggestion for further research. The main direction for further research, as argued in this study, would be the increased focus on peer collaborative writing in different phases of writing (e.g., while planning, during writing or while editing and revising) and incorporating different versions of collaborative writing and measuring their effectiveness.