Phil wrote:
"I am finding that these more holistic focuses develop a diverse range of motives during role plays on the learners' parts. Some focus on the role relationships, others on the rhetorical staging of the encounter, and others on problematic language (grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation) that is impeding the success of their role play. I haven't directly investigated the role of inner speech, but it is interesting to see in some transcripts the role of L1 (Thai) as almost an exasperated outburst during a problematic stage of the role play. It is also interesting to see how "peer scaffolding" in L1, in what I would say is one of the interlocutor's zone of proximal development, helps the learner manage the role play to unfold more meaningfully. These instances are with adult learners. I wonder how this would differ with young learners, particularly with respect to their level of conceptual development vis-a-vis everyday concepts and scientific/schooled concepts?"
Phil
I know very little about inner speech but this is something I would like to investigate further. During my research, focusing a teenage student, I concluded that (vocalized) inner speech in L1 was sometimes crucial for the development of the activity and helped my student perform beyond her level of competence and, thus, construct knowledge. In some moments, inner speech allowed her to distantiate (??) from what she had said and then analyze it. In other moments, inner speech helped her regain control
(Lantolf & Appel, 1994) and self-regulation (Vygotsky; McCafferty,1994). I wonder what would have happened if she were in a school where people prohibit students of using their L1 as a mediational tool.
Focusing on another aspect of this discussion, it is still hard for me to write about issues related to Vygotsky's ideas in English because most of my reading has been done in my L1. This way, I cannot express the ideas in the same way you do.
On the other hand, when talking about teaching methodology (that is, the various methods and techniques for teaching a FL), it used to be easier in English because all I had read was in English, not in my L1.
Karin Quast
mktostes@uol.com.br
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