Recently, James Lantolf, Distinguished Professor at Center for the Cognitive Science of Language, has officially started his postgraduate international courses. The course name is “Principles of Sociocultural Psychological Theory and Their Application to L2 Education and Development”. Up to now, Professor James Lantolf has delivered two courses. This is a virtual course presented by ZOOM. Associate Professor Jiang Rong, deputy director of CCSL hosted the course and made open speech. The two courses have attracted more than 500 domestic and foreign attendees.
The first lecture was presented on the evening of September 16th, Beijing time, which was entitled "Introducing SCT". In the session, Professor Lantolf briefly introduced the origin and connotation of sociocultural theory, an important theory in second language acquisition. First, Professor Lantolf started from the comparison and interpretation of the two concepts of "Sociocultural Theory" and "Cultural-Historical Psychology", and explained the research goals and research methods of L.S. Vygotsky, a representative scholar of social and cultural theory. Secondly, Professor Lantolf proposed that the core of sociocultural theory is actually the development of language, which is also his area of interest. Professor Lantolf lucubrated around this topic and encouraged heated discussions, such as how to investigate the existence of consciousness (Consciousness) and the relationship between Brain and Mind. Next, Professor Lantolf further elaborated on the importance of social culture in psychology. Human biological instincts and innate conditions are similar, but because of different environments and cultures, we will have different behaviors and activities. Biological instincts and innate conditions are different. Societal and cultural interaction is indispensable. Then, Prof. Lantolf introduced the meaning and function of Environment, Signs and Tools in social and cultural theory, and put forward many vivid and interesting examples related to Chinese, and had active discussions with teachers and students. of interaction. Finally, Professor Lantolf proposed a model related to human consciousness, and introduced its components in detail.
The second lecture was presented on the evening of September 23rd, Beijing time, the lecture was entitled "The Genetic Method". In this session, Professor Lantolf mainly introduced Vygotsky's views on the methodology of psychology at that time. First of all, Professor Lantolf discussed the topic from the concept of "Methodology" and "Method" and proposed that the development of methodology is the core of all scientific development. Secondly, Professor Lantolf introduced in detail the connotation and meaning of "Crisis in psychology" proposed by Vygotskt. Then, he further elaborated the concept of "Metaphysics" and its connection with psychology. Based on this, Professor Lantolf also explores the differences between psychology and other general natural sciences. Professor Lantolf then proposes a model of the functional system of human consciousness, in which various factors interact and interact with the external social reality. Finally, Professor Lantolf proposed that the development of the methodology of psychology should be carried out on the basis of dialectics.
During the Q&A part, the attendees actively raised questions to Professor Lantolf, and Professor Lantolf patiently gave detailed and comprehensive answers to the audience. Professor Lantolf's courses are rich, comprehensive and easy to understand, which benefited teachers and students a lot.
