Sociocultural Identity DevelopmentScaffolded byCollaboration-ConduciveStrategies:A Case of an Iranian EFL Writing Class

Abstract

This investigation postulatesVygotsky's (1978) concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and his related “scaffolding" metaphor as well as Norton's (2006) principles of sociocultural identity as its theoretical foundation.Thisresearchintends to scrutinizethe socioculturally-oriented mediationalmechanisms utilized in student-student and student-teacher collaborationsin an Iranian EFL writing class. Such scrutinyis to reveal the learners'sociocultural change in behavior, and how their sociocultural identity is scaffolded and developed through collaborative negotiation in writing. For this purpose, Lidz's Rating Scale (1991) was adopted to delve into the sociocultural-identity-conducive interactions produced by 32 sophomoresof English Language and Literature at Shiraz University as they collaborated in writing. The analysis of such scaffolding-mediated discourse provides useful insights into the nature of the learners' sociocultural identity development.Particularly, the results provide evidence that dialogic exchangesthrough linguistic meanson the part of peers and the teacher include some behaviors such as intentionality, joint regard, affective involvement, communicative ratchet, contingent responsivity, intersubjectivity, and L1 use in collaborative writing taskswhich playthe most significant role in establishing new identities and gaining self-regulation, i.e. developing sociocultural identity.