While cognitive theory has dominated the study of second language acquisition

in recent decades

the sociocultural perspective has become a hot topic of research in second language acquisition. Sociocultural theory

nowadays

generally refers to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

which contains eight important propositions such as mediation

control

internalization

the zone of proximal development

and research methods of psychological development. These elements have been widely applied in second language acquisition research and have brought some inspiration to second language acquisition teaching

but we also need to clearly understand that sociocultural theory cannot be the main research method in second language acquisition at present

but only opens up a new path based on the original research.