Interaction sociale et cognition située: quels modèles pour la recherche sur l?acquisition des langues ?

Different models of cognition serve actually as points of reference for second language research. This diversity has the positive effect of enriching the theoretical landscape, but it also raises crucial questions about the compatibility and the complementarity of the various models. This contribution aims at reflecting on the nature of a socio-interactional concept of cognition for the study of second language acquisition. Drawing from two lines of research - the sociocultural approach to mental functioning and the ethnomethodological approach to social interaction - we will argue that understanding cognition as being socially situated and distributed is particularly interesting for a socio-interactionist approach to acquisition. And we will discuss some implications of such a definition for second language research. (Key words : second language learning, social interaction, cognition, activity, Vygotsky, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, socio-cultural theory)