Socio-Cultural Approach in Language Education

Abstract

In this article, we have tried to reconstruct some of the implications of socio-cultural approach for language education, with a view to the theory of discourse ethics. Our main concept is based on the idea that although socio-cultural approach has had many advantages for the field of language education, it has not been able to give a proper moral aspect to language education due to the lack of normative resources for explaining how to reach mutual understanding and agreements in linguistic interactions. It is emphasized that this deficit can be amended by the theory of discourse ethics. After all, the implications of this normative socio-cultural approach are explored in the areas of language-educational research, teaching and evaluation. The moral aspects of these three areas are highlighted.