De®ning the Zone of Proximal Development in US Foreign Language Education CELESTE KINGINGER Pennsylvania State University The focus of this article is the interpretation of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development ZPD) for foreign language teaching in the USA. This problem is taken to exemplify the eect of long-standing tensions between progressive and conservative stakeholders in educational processes. As the construct gains in prominence, it is claimed by the progressives and conservatives alike, who shape the contours of its meaning according to their particular educational vision. A brief summary of the construct's origins in the writings of Vygotsky is followed by an outline of its reception among Western psychologists and educators, reviewing a variety of proposals for interpreting the ZPD in teaching and in research. In the subsequent sections, the essay comments on progressive and conservative trends in the US foreign language profession, and on the reception of the construct, focusing on three cases in which the ZPD has been invoked in recent publications on research and classroom teaching. In recent years, language education has witnessed an increase in the visibility of Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and the Zone of Proximal Development ZPD) has become the most commonly invoked aspect of this theoretical orientation Wells 1999). The ZPD construct is a shorthand device capturing the emergence of cognitive development within social interaction, when participants are provided assistance from more-competent others teachers or peers) as they engage in learning activity. Since the coining of the term `zona blizhaishego razvitia' by Lev S. Vygotsky in the early 1930s, the construct has inspired numerous interpretations. Most writers agree, however, that the ZPD must not be taken out of context, but grounded in a broader sociogenetic cognitive theory. This essay considers the reception of the ZPD by the US foreign language profession in light of the need to situate the construct within a broader interpretive frame. It is argued that the choice of interpretive frame for the ZPD is situated not only within the con®nes of theoretical debate, but also in larger issues of professional axiology. In this essay, therefore, the problem is situated with respect to the perennial debate in education between proponents of traditional or retrospective education emphasizing the reproduction of past practices, and advocates of alternative or prospective views championing educational transformation for the future. In its focus on the processes by which cognition emerges, the ZPD is a construct well-suited Applied Linguistics 23/2: 240±261 # Oxford University Press 2002