Thinkning and language processes

The thinking and language process is very linked and cannot be understood without the relation and impact of the other. In fact, the thinking process is the last step to achieve in the language process. There is dialectical relation between language and process as the speech structures became later basic structures of the thinking. Also, the development of language allows the development of superior functions such as self-regulating. 

Piaget and Vygotsky related both processes. Piaget stated that the egocentric talk is not directed to anyone and it does not have any significative role in the cognitive development as it uses schemes that we are created. Piaget also believed that knowledge is the way to share knowledge but it is not a useful transmission of knowledge as people will not understand you because you think and talk different from everybody. On the other hand, Vygotsky who stated that we first interact with the social world and then it is developed the private speech and therefore the egocentric talk is extremely useful and meaningful as it helps to regulate oneself and solve problems. 

As I have already stated, Vygotsky had the strong belief that through knowledge we can develop self-regulation. As language is close to thinking processes, the ability of self-regulating is to solve problems that require the capacity to think accordingly and justly. The role of language in this thinking process is that, for instance, thinking out loud can improve our mood or help to solve a problem so therefore we will be self-regulating. By thinking out loud we are using thinking processes and the oral language. 

The acquisition and development of language follows fixed stage for every child. The first contact that we have with language is already when we are not born as we are able to differentiate human from animal’s sound, and with a very young age we are as well able to differentiate different languages even when we are not able to talk for ourselves. Our first words are by imitating the sounds that we hear from adults or by creating our own words. A child learns a word for the consequences that it provokes. When the child is six months old, by observing what happens after using a word we end up assuming that the consequence is the meaning of the word and we use it when we want that to happen. When this is achieved is also developed the thinking as we make our own connections with symbols, meanings and words. Therefore, kids understand language before expressing it. 

In the first years of life we use language to get what we want and as we start to learn more words and its utility and construction of proper sentences we end up using it by the pleasure or communicating and having social relationships. The progressive development of language involves the use of just one word to state something. For instance, if a kid wants a glass of water instead of saying “I want some water, please” as he has not fully developed language he will say just “water”. Then, the kid uses two words so he would state for example “water, please”. Thanks to the vocabulary and grammatical language learned at school, and the comprehension of language when it is used by the people form our context we are able to formulate long and well constructed languages and use them for an aim.

For that reason is so important to work language at school and improve it. Through alphabetization in school children will learn:

In order to make this knowledge of language useful and meaningful for students the teacher must link the content representations that they have and help them to modify it to be better and to create new ones which are more complex and richer from a linguistic point of view so the new acquisition of language can be assumed. 

The learning of language at school must involve all the perspective of it, both oral and written language. One activity that can be done in a primary school classroom to work both abilities of the language competence is to ask students to read the book they prefer and then make a discussion in groups asking questions such as “Why have you chosen this book?” “Did you like it? Why?” “Which elements are important to highlight for the good understanding of the plot?”. To work more deeply the written language, the teacher can ask the students to develop an essay about what have they done during the summer holidays or in Christmas, or about their family or their hobbies. A writing in which they can show their linguistic skills and from a topic they can feel related in order to be more motivated to write and express. 

To sum up, schooling is fundamental for the correct development of the linguistic competence which is extremely important for the right development of different cognitive processes such as thinking. Also, to develop language we must be experts with the basic cognitive processes as without paying attention at how people talk or at what the teacher is explaining, and without memorizing all the relevant information that can be useful language could not be acquired.