This paper argues that Vygotskian psycholinguistics is not only compatible with current second language acquisition theory but also extremely useful as a productive paradigm within which to conduct research and theory building. These claims are supported through three sections of the paper: (a) a brief overview of Vygotskian concepts of particular relevance to SLA, (b) a summary of selected Vygotskybased SLA research, and (c) a discussion of areas of research in which a Vygotskian framework appears particularly promising.