ABSTRACT
Doing science is essentially a group activity, and the same is often true of learning to do science. Given that the activity of any group usually relies on communicative exchanges using language in its various linguistic, symbolic, and pictorial forms, then language is necessarily involved in doing science and in learning to do it. But linguistic exchanges are not just means of coordinating activities (cf. Clark, 1996, 1999). Considered as a system of signs (Saussure, 1915/1972), language is also a cultural repository of concepts; and considered in its primary manifestation, as social interaction (Bahktine, 1929/1977), language is the means by which concepts are engendered. In the continuation of Vygotsky's work, social interactions are considered to be the primary means by which scientific notions are coelaborated, building on their everyday correlates, with the scaffolding of a more capable person such as a teacher.
