Accurate Referential Communication and its Relation with Private and Social Speech in a Naturalistic Context

Abstract

Research into human communication has been grouped under two traditions: referential and sociolinguistic. The study of a communication behavior simultaneously from both paradigms appears to be absent. Basically, this paper analyzes the use of private and social speech, through both a referential task (Word Pairs) and a naturalistic dyadic setting (Lego-set) administered to a sample of 64 children from grades 3 and 5. All children, of 8 and 10 years of age, used speech that was not adapted to the decoder, and thus ineffective for interpersonal communication, in both referential and sociolinguistic communication. Pairs of high-skill referential encoders used significantly more task-relevant social speech, that is, cognitively more complex, than did low-skill dyads in the naturalistic context. High-skill referential encoder dyads showed a trend to produce more inaudible private speech than did low-skill ones during spontaneous communication. Gender did not affect the results. Keywords: private speech, social speech, referential communication La investigación sobre comunicación humana se agrupa entorno a dos tradiciones: referencial y sociolingüística. Al parecer nunca se ha estudiado una conducta comunicativa simultáneamente desde ambos paradigmas. Básicamente este artículo analiza el uso del lenguaje privado y social, mediante una tarea referencial (Pares de Palabras) y una situación natural diádica (Lego), en una muestra de 64 niños/as de tercer y quinto cursos de primaria. Todos los niños/as de 8 y 10 años de edad produjeron un tipo de lenguaje no adaptado al descodificador, o sea ineficaz para la comunicación interpersonal, tanto en la comunicación referencial como en la sociolingüística. Las díadas formadas por los mejores codificadores referenciales usaron significativamente más lenguaje social pertinente a la tarea, o sea cognitivamente más complejo, que las díadas peores, en el contexto natural de comunicación espontánea. Las díadas de mejores codificadores referenciales mostraron una tendencia a producir más lenguaje privado inaudible que las peores, durante la comunicación espontánea. La variable sexo no influyó significativamente en los resultados. Palabras clave: habla privado, habla social, comunicación referencial

A Neurocognitive Approach to the Study of Private Speech

“…We have also developed bridges between both traditions (referential and naturalistic) (Girbau, 1997;Girbau & Boada, 2004). Finally, our theoretical critique of misleading interpretations of Vygotsky's concepts about private and inner speech needs to be considered (Girbau, 1996).…”

“…Our research group has analyzed private speech in older children, from referential settings to naturalistic social contexts, and has incorporated new sequential methods for data analysis (Girbau, 2001(Girbau, , 2002b(Girbau, , 2002cGirbau & Boada, 1996). We have also developed bridges between both traditions (referential and naturalistic) (Girbau, 1997;Girbau & Boada, 2004). Finally, our theoretical critique of misleading interpretations of Vygotsky's concepts about private and inner speech needs to be considered (Girbau, 1996).…”