Re: Our focus on language

Ellice A Forman (ellice+ who-is-at pitt.edu)
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 13:11:02 -0400 (EDT)

Besides Lisa Delpit, there have been other attempts to take the
discussion of mediated activity away from an exclusive focus on language.
Barbara Rogoff has argued for this in many places, including I believe,
her 1990 book, Apprenticeship in Thinking (Oxford University Press).
Jacqui Goodnow has also raised this issue in several places including her
chapter, The Socialization of Cognition in the book, Cultural Psychology,
edited by Stigler, Shweder, & Herdt (1990), Cambridge University Press.
Both argue for a shift in focus from language itself to routine cultural
practices.

Another interesting perspective on the North American obsession with
self-espression in talk is the film by Tobin, Wo & Davidson, Preschool in
Three Cultures (the book is by the same authors and was published by Yale
University Press). In the U.S. preschool but not in the Chinese or
Yapanese Preschools, the children are encouraged to put every thought and
action into words. THey are asked to come up with verbal metaphors for
cloud-shapes. They are asked to resolve their disputes by discussion.
They are asked to express their feelings verbally. Observers of the film
from either Japan or China remarked that the means used to resolve
disputes reminded them of marital therapy. THis was not a compliment.
Ellice Forman
Department of Psychology in Education
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA