Language play and language learning: Creating zones of proximal development in a third-grade multilingual classroom

Many studies attest to the importance of language play in first-language development; few investigations, however, have explored the relationship between language play and second-language (L2) learning, particularly with respect to children. In the study described in this chapter we investigated how language play created zones of proximal development (ZPD) for L2 learning in circumstances in which a Brazilian student with no language background in either English or Spanish entered a third-grade class in which all of the other students spoke Spanish as their first language. We were interested in gaining insights into the role of language play in developing metalinguistic awareness/knowledge and in affording meaning making through the creation of semiotic systems. In analyzing the data we followed the premises of activity theory and microgenesis, in addition to Newman and Holzman's (1993) perspective of Vygotsky's construct of the ZPD, which emphasizes transformational and revolutionary aspects of learning.