| Body | James P. Lantolf is the director fo the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at Pennsylvania State University. His areas of specialization include sociocultural theory, second language acquisition, and cultural-historical psychology.
Concept-Based Language Instruction, or CBLI, is grounded in principles of learning proposed by L. S. Vygotsky and makes use of conceptual knowledge (CK) of language based on Cognitive Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics. CBLI proposes that it is possible to compensate for lack of robust exposure to input typical of immersion settings by providing learners with access to high-quality explicit knowledge of the semantic concepts available in a language that allow users to flexibly manipulate that language to meet their own communicative needs. The following is a condensed version of the more important principles and procedures in CBLI.
- Language is a flexible meaning-making (conceptual) tool for thinking and communicating
- Learners must have opportunities to manipulate the concepts of a language to meet their own communicative needs rather than to match the performance of native users of the language.
- Examples of concepts include verbal aspect and mood in Spanish, word order in Chinese, article use in English, discourse cohesive devices in German, addressivity in French, figurative concepts (i.e., metaphors, metonymy) etc.
- CK must be presented to learners graphically and holistically rather than verbally and in a piecemeal fashion.
- CK must be linked to communicative activities.
- Learners must be able to explain their understanding of CK and how they use it in communicative activities.
- Learner development occurs in two domains: CK of language features and ability to use this knowledge in guiding their own flexible communicative (speech and writing) activities.
- Using an L2 effectively does not require using it according to native speaker norms. It does require understanding the concepts available in a given language to create meaning.
- Focus is neither on the learner nor on the teacher but on the joint activity of teaching-learning.
- The psychological mechanisms that guide development are not inside of a learner’s head but are in the social interaction that unfolds between learners, concepts, and others.
- Education is a special kind of development that should be different from what occurs in the everyday world; consequently, the teaching should not try to replicate the learning that occurs outside of the classroom.
- The more complex a language feature is (e.g., tense, aspect, mood, addressivity, word order, etc.) the more explicit instruction is useful.
- Useful reference for explaining the theory and principles underlying CBLI along with summaries of classroom studies: Lantolf, J. P., & Poehner, M. E. (2014). Sociocultural theory and the pedagogical imperative. New York: Routledge.
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