TRADITIONAL VERSUS MODERNITY: EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONIST THEORY FOR SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

It is a natural phenomenon that children acquire their first language in a social setting where they interact with their caregivers. In early stages social interaction helps in phonological and lexical development in learning a language. However, it is not clear that whether social interaction facilitates the adults in the acquisition of syntactic rules in the second language learning. This research explored whether social interaction facilitates the learner in the acquisition of second language learning. Social interactionist theory (SIT) by Lev Vygotsky explains the process development of language with an enhanced emphasis on the role of social interaction. This interaction needs to take place between the child learning the target language and adults having linguistic knowledge pertaining to that particular language. The participants of the study were primary level students of private school, the researcher selected thirty students and divide them into two groups of fifteen. One group learned second language via traditional method (Grammar translation method) and the other group learned the language via traditional method and in social interaction. The research study was quantitative in nature.