One of the tenets of Vygotsky’s theory is the importance of language
in learning. As Dr. Usher made clear in her PPT, Vygotsky thought that “once
language develops, cognition is language.” James, too, elucidates the
importance of language in learning stating, “In all these later studies, verbal
material is the vehicle by which the mind thinks… after adolescence has begun, ‘words,
words, words’ must constitute a large part… of what the human being has to
learn” (James, 1983, p. 73). A solid example demonstrating this is from a
Memory and Thinking course I took in undergrad in which we discussed how memories are
much more vivid after individuals have developed language. This is largely hypothesized to be explained by the development of language which becomes one of the main routes individuals think and experience things. So, although language is very important in the process of cognition it does not necessarily mean that one cannot occur without the other.
(Pages 72 and 73 of James’ text clearly had a wealth of application
information for me (: )
Very interesting point about the importance of language on how we think. The example of memories being more vivid with the development of language made me think of a concept in the field of communication; the sapir-whorf hypothesis. Even though it's been the focal point of countless studies it still remains a hypothesis mainly because of it's controversial elements. To summarize one aspect of it, the researchers believe that if a culture does not have a word associated with a specific emotion then individuals within that culture will not experience it. For example, if we didn't have the word 'frustration' in our English language then this is proposing that we wouldn't experience that emotion. This perspective tends to leave me chewing on the side of my mouth with bewilderment. :/
ReplyDeleteTori and Rachel - you both would enjoy Steven Pinker's writings on this topic. Pinker would vehemently disagree with the sapir-whorf hypothesis (indeed, the chapter you read for Module 4 suggests why). Having studied and taught language during the part of my career, I must say that I'm a skeptic too. I do believe, however, that understanding certain expressions can help us ACCESS a deeper emotional range. But it's only accessing what was already there to begin with ... not creating it. My two cents.
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