Thought and Language

Thought and Language by Lev Vygotsky, translated by Alex Kozulin

256 pages

Started: 1 June 2011
Finished: 14 June 2011

I find it interesting that it is only at this point in my education, and only because I choose to on my own, that I am reading the actual writings of the people whose theories I have been studying this whole time rather than someone’s summary of what they said. And I’m finding it so very enlightening and refreshing.

The first 50 pages of this book are not actually part of the book. They are a chapter written by the translator that puts Vygotsky and this work in context. Just that alone was worth the read for me as I gained a greater understanding of where Vygotsky’s theories came from, what influenced them, and how and when they influenced the rest of the world.

Vygotsky and Piaget were contemporaries and this book can be seen as Vygotsky’s response to the theories put forth by Piaget. Vygotsky basically spends the book not just saying that Piaget (and others) was wrong with his ideas on thought and speech, but backing it up with many different studies he (Vygotsky) did in his own work. The studies and this book are an effort to explain the origins of thought and language and how they influence each other. And I’ve spent a lot of time as I’ve been reading this pondering his points and finding myself agreeing with many of them.

In this book Vygotsky spends a lot of time focusing on the creation of concepts within the child, the importance of word meaning, and the characteristics of egocentric and social speech. Part of me wishes to go back through the book and thoroughly analyze it and take notes. While part of me is also glad that I just let myself sit back, as it were, and absorb it all as one.

I have always liked Vygotsky’s theories. That is a big part of why I chose this book. But I never understood them before the way I do now. In reflection, I appreciate this book because I have a basic foundation not just in Vygotsky’s theories but in Piaget’s as well (although I’m thinking I need to add some of Piaget’s works to my reading pile now to get the other side). I teach the theories of both men and while I would love to go into greater depth with Vygotsky’s theories with my students now that I myself have a greater depth, I don’t think it could be appreciated without an understanding of both men. Do I go into depth with Vygotsky first and then Piaget? Or do I do it in the other order? They are so related in their arguments that you really need both together.

I particularly enjoyed this quote:

Unlike the development of instincts, thinking and behavior of adolescents are prompted not from within but from without, by the social milieu. The tasks with which society confronts an adolescent as he enters the cultural, professional, and civic world of adults udoubtedly become an important factor in the emergence of conceptual thinking (p. 108).

The book ends with:

A word is a microcosm of human consciousness (p. 256).

And I think that sums it up quite nicely.

Rating: 10

Alphabet of Books – V