The observation of children's speech & communication is a crucial one. =
As
a practioner of many years of teaching young children as well as adults,
I've learned, as you have, to pay attention to the deeper structures and
thoughts of such communicators. It's true that yg children tend to parro=
t
syntax as well as lexical references without really understanding the
deeper soically contructed meanings, and it's up to us, as teachers and
learning facilitators, to discover just what is meant and intended so tha=
t
we can move them to even deeper and higher forms of cognitive and affecti=
ve
levels.
To illustrate, a old joke--much truth is said in jest:
A yg girl asked her father, "Where did I come from.
The father feeling really embarrassed began with the birds 'N bees and
proceeded to explain the anatomical differences of the sexes and the enti=
re
act of procreation. As he began to get more explicit in his description =
of
conception etc, the little girl's eyes began to get wider and wider and t=
he
father began to get more and more uncomfortable, expalining the facts of
life. When he finsihed, he asked if his daughter now understood where she
came from.
The daughter nodded, yes and then add, "The girl down the street said she
came from California!"
As teachers we always have to understand that* performance precedes
competence*. And, that we always have to ask what is the child really
asking of us. The words used do not always have the same referent or
significance---the difference between novice and expert is an entirely
different level of cognition.=20
A prot=E9g=E9 of Vygotsky, Alexander Romanovich Luria's (1902-1977)=20
cross-cultural studies of adult activity in Uzbekistan document that mind
is, in actuality, an artifact rather than a natural system that is
universal, static or immutable. He found that sociohistorical
factors--particularly, schooling--enhance thinking by moving neophytes of
all ages from one form of cognition to another, higher form. He showed th=
at
people progress from the function-relational, thematic thinking of the
illiterate, nonschooled child/adult (contextualized representation) towar=
d
the more categorical, taxonomic thinking of the literate, schooled
adolescent/adult (decontextualized rationality). As he notes:
The significance of schooling lies not just in the acquisition
of new knowledge, but the creation of new motives and formal
modes of discursive verbal and logical thinking divorced from
immediate practical experience.=20
Further, he states:
Education, which radically alters the nature of cognitive activity,
greatly facilitates the transition from practical to theoretical
operations. Once people acquire education, they make increasingly
greater use of categorization to express ideas that objectively
reflect reality.=20
As the children become more proficient in langauage they move as you know
from imitation to novel expression and deeper understanding because the
development of mind and sign is from the "outside" to the" inside" and th=
en
re-externalized again in communication with others and self.
This is why I find teaching/learning such a joy. I hope this perspecti=
ve
on externalization/internalization aspect helps in the discussion.
Michael E.=20