1. Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky 2. Language is a tool for thought 3. Socially 4. Interdependence of thought and language 5. Concept 6. Superficial social interactions 7. Foundation of thought 8. Syntactic 9. Lev Semyonovich 10. Language is not a tool for thought

1. Bincy M Baby
Social science
Seminar on
Vygotsky and language
development

2. LANGUAGE

3. Language refers to the
system of words that people
use to express thoughts and
feelings to each other

4. Language Development
 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IS
THE PROCESS BY CHILDREN
COME TO UNDERSTAND AND
COMMUNICATE LANGUAGE
DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

5. LEV SEMYONOVICH VYGOTSKY
NOV 19 1896-JUNE 11 1934

6. VYGOTSKY’S VIEWS ON LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
According to Vygotsky language and other
cognitive skills are not primarily
determined by inborn factors but is a
product of activities practiced in the social
institutions of culture in which the
individual grows up.
 The history of the society in which a child is
reared and the child’s personal history are
crucial determinants of the way in which that
individual will think.

7. Vygotsky’s postulates
Vygotsky’s
postulates
Language is a
tool for
thought
Language is
socially constructed
Interdependence
of thought and
language

8. Vygotsky’s Postulates
 Language is a tool for thought:
• According to him language is tool for
organizing thinking because it bears the
concept and it is also the most important tool
that mediates our thoughts, feelings and
behaviors.
• Language is initially used in interaction
between adult and child as a means of
communication.
• Gradually it is internalized into a means of the
child’s own thinking and control of his own
activity.

9. 2. Language is socially constructed:
 language is fundamentally and socially
constructed activity of meaning-making
and communication.
 Language develops from social
interactions for communication purpose.

10. 3. Interdependence of thought and language:
 In humans thought and speech develop
independently and function separately.
 At around the age of two the curves of
development of thought and speech meet and
joint to initiate a new form of behaviour,that is
when thought becomes verbal and speech
becomes rational.
 A child first seems to use language for
superficial social interactions but at the some
point this language goes underground to
become the structure of the child’s thinking.

11. Three stages of speech development
• Social speech : in this stage a child uses speech to
control the behavior of others. A child uses speech to
express simple thoughts and emotions such as crying
laughter and shouting .
• E g . “I want milk”
• Egocentric speech: (3-7yrs)in this stage children
often talk to themselves. They speaks out loud in
attempt to guide their own behavior. Transition from
social activity to a more individualized activity .
• E g . Counting numbers loudly
• Inner speech: final stage of speech development. This
allows to direct our thinking and behavior. Once one
has reached this final stage they are able to engage
in all forms of higher mental functions .
• E g .count in one’s head.

12. Major events in Language
Development
1. Language develops not from the individual
to the social but from the social to the
individual.
2. The earliest speech of the child is
essentially external speech for others and
is called as social speech. (not related to
intellectual thinking , crying, laughter and
shouting)
3. At certain age the social speech of the
child gets into egocentric speech (3 to 7
yrs and inner speech (soundless speech).

13. 4. Egocentric speech serves mental orientation
to tasks and conscious understanding of the
environment . It is the transition from the
social activity of children to a more
individualized activity.
5. Over time this egocentric speech transforms
into inner speech a more internal less
vocalized and less readily understood form of
self-talk.

14. 6. In the end inner speech separates completely
from social speech and vocalization stops
altogether .This is the foundation of thought.
7. As the child develops inner speech and meaning
moves to the forefront and the phonological
element of speech disappears.
8. At the end the meaning aspects of inner speech
evolves along with the syntactic changes.

15. Stages in the development of
language and thought

16. Stages in the development of
language and thought

17. Vygotsky describes the following broad stages
in the development of thought language
relationship.
1. The primitive or natural stage.
The primitive stage is characterized by
the infant experimenting with sound
production . Coos, ga-gas and babble are
emitted have no purpose but to explore the
baby’s sense of sound.

18. Primitive stage
 As babies they goo and gah and cry and babble. these are
examples of the primitive stage of language development. the
sounds produced serve no real purpose except to produce the
sound and experiment with our new capability. just as a baby
laid on his belly may make crawling motions yet not crawl,
the baby may also make sounds without producing speech. as
the baby does not produce speech, there is also not verbal
thought, or internal monologue. this does not mean the baby
does not think, it only means that the child has not yet
internalized his speech. the verbalization performed at this
stage serve no purpose except to practice sound. there is no
reason for the child to internalize during this stage.

19. 2. Naïve stage.
It is characterized by :
(a) The child’s experience with his own body
and of objects and the use of tools.
(b) Increasingly correct use of language
structure without the understanding of
their logical meaning.

20. Naïve stage
As child begins to speak, he learns how to say words far before he
learns their meaning and function. An example of this is “ball”. To
the child this one word can mean a variety of things that is
“where is my ball, ”give me the ball” etc…as child develops and
gains understanding of new words ,he begins to produce naive
sentences like “where ball” and “where is the ball”. The child uses
this structures without any understanding of how to put a
sentence together or why the words must go in that order. He
only knows that when the words are said in that way, others
understand his meaning. Understanding of word order comes
about before the child learns the logic of how the words fit
in that order.

21. 3) Egocentric speech stage/External stage:
it is characterized by :
(a) the use of external signs as aids in the
solution of internal problems.
(b) counting on the fingers
(c) egocentric speech becomes more and
more curtailed and esoteric.

22. Egocentric stage
During this stage the child begins to use
external objects to represent words. This can
be characterized by the child using objects or
fingers when counting. Another interesting
event is the beginning of egocentric speech.
The child will talk to himself when there is no
one else around and also during play with
others. This is the child verbalization of
thought.

23.  In –growth stage:
at this stage
(a) The external operations turn inward.
(b) The child acquires ability for counting in the
head.
(c) Logical memory develops.
(d) Achieve soundless speech.

24. In growth stage
As the child egocentric speech turns inward, he
enters the final stage. He uses the skills he has
acquired to perform logical tasks internally.
Rather than counting aloud, he will count “in
his head” using part of his short term
memory. This much faster than verbalizing
each thought and just as his initial speech
developed with practice, the more
internalized thought and logic is used, the
better the child can perform.

25. Factors influencing language
development

26. Questions ……
1. According to vygoysky man’s greatest tool
for communication is?
1) Education 2)gestures 3)confidence
4)language
2) From the postulates proposed by vygotsky
the tool for thought is
1) language 2)mental ability 3)signs 4)memory
3 Language is constructed ___________ ?
1 ) socially 2)mentally 3)physically
4)theoritically

27. 4 The development of thought and language in child is ?
1) dependent and separate
2) independent and separate
3) both equally
4) none of the above
5 Why is it told as according to vygotsky language is a tool for organizing
thinking?
1) Concept
2) content
3) matter
4) thought
6 At first a child seems to use language for which purposes?
1) Meaning making 2) communication 3) superficial social interactions 4)
perception
7 Inner speech separates completely from social speech and vocalization stops
altogether.this was the foundation of which of the following?
1)Communication 2)use of language 3)foundation of thought 4)meaning

28. 8 In the semantic (meaning)aspect of innerspeech evolve along with which of
the following changes?
1)Language usage
2) sound pattern
3) syntactic
4) egocentric speech
9 L S Vygotsky, L and S stand for?
1) Lev Semyonovich
2) Lee sanwich
3) Lan Samivonwich
4) Lal Sammyowich
10 Which one is not a postulate of vygotsky?
1) language is not a tool for thought
2) language is socially constructed
3) interdependence of language and thought
4) language is a tool for thought