ABSTRACT
Listening to children in the role play area of any nursery or early years classroom, or to the totally absorbed ten-year-old mathematician as she works on a number problem, are experiences common to all primary teachers. Such commentaries on activity are recognised as important aspects of children's growing language competencies. Piaget described them as egocentric speech. Social and cognitive dimensions of talk both play vital roles in the primary classroom. Vygotsky saw all speech as primarily social in function, the intellect being developed within social interaction. Cazden implies that active thinking is dependent on speaking aloud, not just on language used as 'inner speech'. Talk in primary classrooms also involves becoming a confident language user in any social situation is of vital importance. Teachers must be aware of the needs of some learners to talk to themselves while working – that they may mutter, comment and exclaim to themselves, particularly as they engage in tasks that demand concentrated thinking.
