Learning 1214.3. From Social Speech to Thinking for Oneself
Dialogical encounters with others that generate thinking together need
to be transformed into individual thinking and learning activity. The basic,
highly complex process is interiorization as put forth by Vygotsky (1997)
and elaborated by Bertau & Karsten (2018): social speech is interiorized
and thereby transformed into inner speech (a silent, often very abbreviated
and fast type of internal speaking). Inner speech acts as a mediator for non-
verbal thought processes in generating ideas and words that can be said to
others in social speech. So social speech and common activities are the
source of inner speech and the thinking activity; we start by thinking-
together while talking about a problem to solve and this models the ways
we will subsequently use language in our inner speech and thinking –
interiorization has taken place, allowing the single individual to continue
the social activity of thinking-together for herself and himself. Teacher-
student and student-student dialogues are at the origin of the formal
learning process: it is here that this type of learning starts and thus these
dialogues must be thoroughly taken care of. Further, any problem-solving
dialogue between individuals of different skills and knowledge in everyday
life is already a seed to informal learning. Dialogues between parents and
children, siblings, friends, and even casual others are core moments to
learning that will fuel the dialogues taking place in formal settings.
Taking care of the dialogues: this is exactly what the project of
Thinking Together does (Dawes, Mercer & Wegerif, 2000; Mercer, 2000;
Thinking Together [Homepage]). Assuming with Vygotsky that our social
speech will lead to and affect our thinking capacities, this program devotes
great attention to how language can be used effectively as a tool for
thinking: together, then for oneself. For this, all participants have to, in the
first place, become aware of language as such a tool for thinking and to
learn how to dialogue with others in order to think together (“explorative
talk,” as opposed to arguing or unrelated parallel talk). All participants: the
teachers are trained first to observe and then to speak in a dialogically-
related, thinking-facilitating way in order to model this type of verbal