Sociocultural theories

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The most comprehensive web site I located on this topic which was still easy to read and understand and will serve as an excellent reference for any paper you might eventually have to write on this topic, had this to say:

Current conceptualizations of sociocultural theory draw heavily on the work of Vygotsky (1986), as well as later theoreticians (see, for example, Wertsch, 1991, 1998). According to Tharp and Gallimore (1988) "This view [the sociocultural perspective] has profound implications for teaching, schooling, and education. A key feature of this emergent view of human development is that higher order functions develop out of social interaction. Vygotsky argues that a child's development cannot be understood by a study of the individual. We must also examine the external social world in which that individual life has developed...Through participation in activities that require cognitive and communicative functions, children are drawn into the use of these functions in ways that nurture and 'scaffold' them" (pp. 6-7). Kublin et al (1998) succinctly state that "Vygotsky (1934/1986) described learning as being embedded within social events and occurring as a child interacts with people, objects, and events in the environment" (p. 287).

Considering the contributions to sociocultural theory to understanding the development of communication, Adamson and Chance (1998) argued that

...There are two particularly noteworthy aspects to a Vygotskian approach to social interactions. First, it is fundamentally cultural. Caregivers are agents of culture (Trevarthen, 1988) who set an infant's nascent actions within an intimate setting that is deeply informed by the caregiver's ...