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Working in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in the English classroom: A Case Study on the Teaching of Literature
Abstract
This paper details an innovative approach to the teaching of literature (fiction) in a Grade 10 convent classroom. This was embedded within a module on English teaching which took six months of the school year. It, however, took the teaching in a deeper way than envisaged in the curriculum, using as it does a theory of school learning within “The Cultural Historical Activity Theory”. The concepts used include “mediation”, “the zone of proximal development,” “the double move”, and “the social situation of development”. The outcome of this teaching experiment was a high level of learner competence in working with South African fiction.
Keywords: Vygotsky, Hedegaard, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Fiction, Mediation, Zone of Proximal Development, Group Work