ABSTRACT
A major feature in the cognitive view of development concerns the importance attached to language. As we have seen, there are differences in the perspectives of Piaget and Bruner (see the extract by Conner, pp. 312-16). Another significant contribution to this debate comes from the work of Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist. Although his main writing dates back to 1929, his study of thought and language was not published in English until 1962. In this study he offered four discoveries, which subsequent research has confirmed. Firstly, that word meanings evolve throughout childhood, which implies that children’s use and interpretation of language may not always be the same as adults. Secondly, that early concepts can sometimes be taken from others, without the Piagetian insistence on experience. Thirdly, that learning to read and write has a significant effect on the achievement of abstract thinking and finally that speech in infancy is a pre-cursor to thinking at a later stage. Vygotsky contradicts Piaget’s bias that thinking and knowing are largely the result of children reflecting on their own activity. Instead he emphasizes how much is learned from interacting with others. We learn, he suggests, from being taught and by what we see others doing, and that language provides an important structure for organizing children’s cognitions. The article by James Britton attempts to assess Vygotsky’s contribution to educational thinking.
