Sociocultural Theory and Mediated Language Learning

If Chapter 1 mapped the institutional architecture within which Chinese language education has been stabilized in Europe, this chapter shifts the analytical lens from policy to conceptual foundations. The focus shifts from how Chinese has been standardized, scaled, and benchmarked to how language learning itself is conceptualized within those structures. This turn is foundational rather than methodological. Before proposing pedagogical reorganization, it is necessary to examine the conceptual assumptions underlying contemporary models of language acquisition.