Eight Dollar Blog

The link between inner speech and L2 learning has also been pursued in a small group of studies on L2 reading and writing (Sokolov, 1972; Upton & Lee-Thompson, 2001; Huh, 2002). The first of these studies to be reviewed is the research reported by Sokolov in his book Inner Speech and Thought (1972). Although the book is about inner speech in general and does not have an L2 or FL learning perspective, some of the experiments described in it involved the resolution of mental tasks by FL learners and are therefore relevant to a discussion of inner speech in the L2.

Sokolov and his colleagues used FL texts in many of their experiments. One set of experiments was designed to document the formation of verbal semantic complexes and verbal generalizations in reading (Sokolov, 1972, pp. 78-88). To this end, subjects with varying degrees of knowledge of English as an FL were asked to “think aloud” as they translated English texts into Russian. The texts themselves varied in terms of difficulty. As the subjects read and translated the English texts into Russian with the aid of dictionaries, it was evident that, regardless of the readers’ level of
knowledge of English and of the text level of difficulty, the subjects’ main strategy was to single out key words or groups of words, find out their meaning (via dictionary or guess), and arrive at a more or less tentative hypothesis about the general meaning of the phrase. For the subjects, these key words acted as “reference points, landmarks in the process of understanding” (p. 80). On the basis of these reference points, the subjects were able to form separate semantic groups and make generalizations about the text.

An important finding was the grammatical structure of these semantic groups. It was found that sequences of nouns and verbs served as the main carriers of meaning. In general, all subjects formed their primary general notion of the passage by establishing the meaning of these noun-verb semantic landmarks. In some cases,
“these generalized semantic verbal associations . . . evoked various graphic images which, too, became carriers of the general meaning” (p. 87). Thus, Sokolov hypothesized that the principal structural element of inner speech consists of verbal semantic complexes of a generalized and abbreviated nature, possibly substituted at times by graphic symbols. On the basis of these paradigmatic experiments involving translation of FL texts, Sokolov was then able to demonstrate the internal processes of generalization and reduction of speech that occur in the realization of complex mental operations.

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

“So you’re suggesting that I must change myself before I change my life?”
“Yes. It’s like that old story my favorite professor told me when I was in law school. One night a father was relaxing with his newspaper after a long day at the office. His son, who wanted to play, kept on pestering him. Finally, fed up, the father ripped out a
picture of the globe that was in the paper and tore it into a hundred tiny pieces. ‘Here son, go ahead and try to put this back together.’ he said, hoping that this would keep the little boy busy long enough for him to finish reading his paper. To his amazement, his son returned after only one minute with the globe perfectly back together. When the startled father asked how he achieved this feat, the son smiled gently and replied ‘Dad, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person, and once I got the person together, the world was okay.’”

“That’s a great story.”
“You see John, the wisest people I have ever met, from the Sages of Sivana to my professors at Harvard Law School, all seem to know the key formula for happiness.”

“Do continue,” I said with a hint of impatience.
“It’s precisely what I said earlier: happiness comes through the progressive realization of a worthy objective. When you are doing
what you truly love to do you are bound to find deep contentment.”

“If happiness comes to everyone who simply does what they love doing, why are so many people miserable?”
“Fair point, John. Doing what you love, whether this means giving up the work you are presently doing to become an actor or spending less time on those things that are less important to make time for those things that are more meaningful, requires a great deal of courage. It requires you to step out of your comfort zone. And change is always a little uncomfortable at first. It is also more than a little risky. Having said this, this is the surest way to design a more joyful life.”

Taken From:THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI

Studies of L2 private speech are valuable because they provide clues on the internalization process that culminates in inner speech. Yet, they remain studies of an externalized form of self-directed speech. If, as Vygotsky postulated, external speech suffers a transformation in form and function as it internalized into inner speech, can private speech-as a transitional phase-be assumed to be identical with inner speech? For example, if a progressive abbreviation of external speech is posed, should we expect inner speech to be even more abbreviated than private speech? How does L2 external speech become “inner” L2 speech? What is “inner” L2 speech like? And how do L2 learners develop an “inner” voice in the L2? Although private speech among L2 learners may offer important insights into the nature of L2 inner speech, the latter merits attention in its own right.

A study that strictly pursued the process of internalization and the development of inner speech among L2 learners of English was conducted by Guerrero (2004). (Because this study will be discussed in detail in Chapter 5, only a brief summary is offered here as part of the general review of research on inner speech and L2 learning.) The purpose of Guerrero’s study was to explore the early stages of L2 inner speech; in other words, her interest was to document what might be taken as the initial phase in the transformation of social or private L2 speech into inner speech. Guerrero collected verbal reports from 16 pre-basic ESL college students. Reports came in the
form of diaries where the participants recorded their notes on the inner speech they experienced during class and outside the classroom. Just as in Lantolf and Yanez’s (2003), Saville-Troike’s (1988), and Ohta’s (2001) research on private speech, repetition and imitation of the L2 were found to be prominent covert behaviors.
Subvocal or silent repetition of language being heard or read was the most frequent reported type of internal L2 use whereas mental verbalization of private thoughts was the least common. As suggested by their verbal reports, these beginning students seemed to be very busy turning external language into inner language and transforming English into a tool for verbal thought.

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

“Can a person’s mind actually be fully fearless?” I asked.
“Great question. The answer is an unequivocal and emphatic ‘Yes!’ Each and every one of the Sages of Sivana was absolutely fearless. You could see it in the way they walked. You could see it in the way they talked. You could see it when you looked deep into their eyes and I’ll tell you something else, John.”

“What,” I asked, fascinated by what I was hearing.
“I too am fearless. I know myself and I have come to see that my natural state is one of indomitable strength and unlimited potential. It was just that I was blocked by all those years of selfneglect and unbalanced thinking. I’ll tell you another thing. When you erase fear from your mind, you start to look younger and your health becomes more vibrant.”

‘Ah, the old mind-body connection,” I replied, hoping to mask
my ignorance. “Yes. The sages of the East have known about it for over five thousand years. Hardly ‘new age,’” he said, with a broad grin lighting up his radiant face.

“The sages shared another powerful principle with me which I think about often. I think it will be invaluable to you as you walk the path of self-leadership and personal mastery. It has given me motivation at times when I feel like taking things easy. The philosophy can be stated succinctly: what sets highly actualized people apart from those who never live inspired lives is that they do those things that less developed people don’t like doing—even though they might not like doing them either.

“Truly enlightened people, those who experience deep happiness daily, are prepared to put off short-term pleasure for the sake of long-term fulfillment. So they tackle their weaknesses and fears head on, even if dipping into the zone of the unknown brings with it a measure of discomfort. They resolve to live by the wisdom of kaizen, improving every aspect of themselves ceaselessly and continuously. With time, things that were once difficult become easy. Fears that once prevented them from all the happiness, health and prosperity they deserved fall to the wayside like stickmen toppled by a hurricane.”

Taken From:THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI

In Vygotskyan sociocultural theory inner speech represents the culmination of the process of internalizing social speech. In this view, language acquisition is essentially a process of privatization of language, from the interpsychological (social) space to the intrapsychological (individual) sphere. A transitional phase in this process that has been observed among children learning their L1 is private, audible, self-directed speech {egocentric speech, in Vygotsky’s terms). Several researchers have documented the occurrence of private speech among L2 learners, both as a symptom of externalization of their inner speech (see, for example, McCafferty, 1994a, 1994b; Frawley & Lantolf, 1985) and as evidence of L2 internalization processes (Centeno-Cortes, 2003; Lantolf, 2003; Lantolf & Yanez, 2003; Ohta, 2001; Saville-Troike, 1988). What is not clear yet is whether all learners engage in some form of audible private speech in their acquisition process. In other words, it has not been established that overt private speech is a necessary phase preceding inner speech in the internalization of an L2.

Despite their focus on vocalized, rather than covert, self-directed speech, privatespeech studies offer important insights into how an L2 is internalized and how it may eventually result in inner speech. Various private speech processes were common to Centeno-Cortes (2003), Lantolf and Yanez’s (2003), Saville-Troike’s (1988), and Ohta’s (2001) investigations: repetition or imitation (verbatim or with variants) of the teacher and other students’ utterances, vicarious response (answering a question or providing a response to a teacher prompt addressed to another student), production of new linguistic forms, rehearsal (practicing what to say), and experimentation(manipulating and playing with language forms). Two additional functions of private speech were also evident in Lantolf and Yanez (2003): the heuristic use of the LI to make sense of the L2 and the use of LI metalanguage to understand the L2.

Several important implications can be derived from the “private speech as internalization” studies: First, learners are not as passive as they may seem in class but are actively involved processing the language at an intrapersonal level; second, their focus of attention may not be the same as the one the teacher wants to emphasize-in
other words, focus is a subjective, self-directed, experience in private speech (Frawley, 1997); and third, as students appropriate the L2 through imitation and repetition, they not only reproduce in their minds the social artifact that is the L2 but also transform it into an individual cognitive tool. (See Chapter 6 for further discussion of the implications drawn from studies dealing with internalization through private speech.)

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

“I need an example.”
“Sure. Let’s take public speaking, an activity most people fear more than death itself. When I was a litigator, I actually saw lawyers who were scared of stepping into court. They would do anything, including settling their client’s otherwise worthy cases just to avoid the pain of getting up on their feet inside a packed courtroom.”

“I’ve seen them too.”
“Do you actually think that they were born with this fear?”
“I sure hope not.”
“Study a baby. She has no limits. Her mind is a lush landscape of potential and possibility. Properly cultivated, it will lead her to greatness. Filled with negativity, it will lead her to mediocrity, at best. What I am saying is this: no experience, whether it is public
speaking or asking your boss for a raise or swimming in a sunsoaked
lake or walking along the beach on a moonlit night, is inherently painful or pleasant. It is your thinking that makes it so.”

“Interesting.”
“A baby could be trained to view a glorious sunny day as depressing. A child could be trained to see a puppy as a vicious animal. An adult could be trained to see a drug as a pleasant vehicle for release. It’s all a matter of conditioning, isn’t it?”

“Sure.”
“The same holds true of fear. Fear is a conditioned response: a life-sucking habit that can easily consume your energy, creativity and spirit if you are not careful. When fear rears its ugly head, beat it down quickly. The best way to do that is to do the thing you fear. Understand the anatomy of fear. It is your own creation. Like any other creation, it is just as easy to tear it down as it is to erect it. Methodically search for and then destroy every fear that has secretly slid into the fortress of your mind. This alone will give you
enormous confidence, happiness and peace of mind.”

Taken From:THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI

The results showed that typically American gestures of the abstract were indeed appropriated by the naturalistic learners, but not by the classroom-instructed learners, despite their high proficiency in the L2. These findings indicate that when learners are immersed in the L2 culture, it is possible for them to change, or infuse with new sense, the gestural substratum of their inner speech.

The question of conceptual change as related to L2 learning is a recurrent one, as we have seen in the writings of Ushakova (1994), John-Steiner (1985b), Lantolf (1999), Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000), and McCafferty and Ahmed (2000). Obviously, the question is too complex to be treated in all fairness here, but when one considers
the great diversity of language learners and learning situations that exist, it is clear that outcomes other than those obtained in situations of “subordinate bilingualism”42 are possible. As Pavlenko (1999) explains, while co-existence (without interaction) of two
(or more) separate conceptual representations is possible (as in the case of bilinguals who keep their languages apart by using them in different contexts), multiple interactions between conceptual stores resulting in conceptual change may take place. Pavlenko’s research (1996, 1999) showed that changes in the bilingual conceptual store may involve any of the following processes: (a) internalization of new concepts, (b) conceptual shift from LI to L2, (c) convergence or the unification of LI and L2 conceptual domains, (d) restructuring or modification of particular conceptual domains, and (e) attrition of certain concepts learned through the LI.

To sum up, a review of the literature on verbal thought in the L2 throws light on various aspects of the inner speech-L2 connection. Some of these are the idea of thinking in another language, the question of students’ preferences for a language for thought, and the role of the LI in the verbal thought of L2 learners. A recurrent
concern among several of the studies reviewed is the issue of change at a semantic and conceptual level and how this may affect the thought-language relationship of L2 inner speech.

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

Julian sensed he was on a roll.
“You practice the art of kaizen by pushing yourself daily. Work hard to improve your mind and body. Nourish your spirit. Do the things you fear. Start to live with unbridled energy and limitless enthusiasm. Watch the sun rise. Dance in a rain shower. Be the person you dream of being. Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself into believing that you were too young, too old, too rich or too poor. Prepare to live a soaring, fully alive life. In the East they say that luck favors the prepared mind. I believe that life favors the prepared mind.”

Julian continued his passionate discourse. “Identify the things that are holding you back. Are you scared of speaking or do you have trouble in your relationships? Do you lack a positive attitude or do you need more energy? Make a written inventory of your weaknesses. Satisfied people are far more thoughtful than others.
Take the time to reflect on what it is that might be keeping you
from the life you really want and know deep down you can have.
Once you have identified what your weaknesses are, the next step
is to face them head on and attack your fears. If you fear public
speaking, sign up to give twenty speeches. If you fear starting a new business or getting out of a dissatisfying relationship, muster
every ounce of your inner resolve and do it. This might be the first
taste of real freedom that you have experienced in years. Fear is
nothing more than a mental monster you have created, a negative
stream of consciousness.”

Fear is nothing more than a negative stream of consciousness?
I like that. You mean all my fears are nothing more than imaginary
little gremlins that have crept into my mind over the years?”

“Exactly, John. Every time they have prevented you from taking some action, you have added fuel to their fire. But when you conquer your fears, you conquer your life.”

Taken From:THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI

The consequences of becoming fully bilingual go beyond the issues of loss and reconstruction of the self. Mental reorganization on the basis of conceptual change may also result. As Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) suggest, “participation can also lead to changes in what is more traditionally dealt with under the heading of cognition and cognitive mediation” (p. 177).

Gestures and Conceptual Change in L2 Inner Speech
Additional insights into the nature of inner speech and the thought-language relationship in L2 learning are offered by McCafferty and Ahmed (2000), who explored the role of nonverbal forms of expression, such as gestures, gaze, and body movements, in L2 learning. Working within a Vygotskyan framework and following McNeill (1987), McCafferty and Ahmed contend that thought, language, and gesture are intertwined at the level of inner speech. Evidence of this is that often gestures reveal the psychological predicate of what the person is thinking, as when a person searching for words completes a sentence with a gesture. Gestures can also express thoughts in ways that are not possible through speech, thus reflecting inner speech better than words themselves.

In their study, McCafferty and Ahmed (2000) pursued the question of appropriation of L2 gestures. In particular, they were interested to see whether Japanese-Ll learners of English of two different types (naturalistic and classroom-instructed) appropriated abstract gestures of the L2 culture (the U.S.), such as metaphorics (pictorial gestures that represent ideas rather than objects, such as the splitting-the-space hand movement to indicate two contrasting ideas) and beats (hand or foot movements that signal important discourse-pragmatic content). These types of gestures were selected because they are associated with cultural expression and could throw light on the issue of intrapersonal change with exposure to a different L2 culture. The researchers speculated,

If gestures of this type are appropriated by L2 learners, given the interconnections discussed above, it would seem possible that aspects of inner speech change as well, and moreover, that the concepts imaged by gesture in connection with inner speech change as part of a process of remediation41 involving use of the second language within the settings of the culture, (p. 200)

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

“I went through precisely the same experience with Yogi Raman the night he shared his special fable with me,” said Julian.
“He told me that pain was a great teacher.”
“What could anyone possibly learn from an experience like this?” I asked breathlessly.

“Yogi Raman, and all of the Sages of Sivana for that matter, believed that people grow the most when they enter the Zone of the Unknown.”
“Okay. But what does that have to do with making me do all those push-ups?”

“You told me after you had done twenty-three that you couldn’t do any more. You told me that this was your absolute limit. Yet, when I challenged you to do more, you responded with another ten push-ups. You had more inside you and when you reached for your resources, you received more. Yogi Raman explained a fundamental truth to me whilst I was his student: ‘The only limits on your life are those that you set yourself.’ When you dare to get out of your circle of comfort and explore the unknown, you start to liberate your true human potential. This is the first step towards self-mastery and mastery over every other circumstance in your life. When you push beyond your limits, just as you did in this little demonstration, you unlock mental and physical reserves that you never thought you had.”

‘Fascinating,’ I thought. Come to think of it, I had recently read in a book that the average person uses only a minute measure of his human capacity. I wondered what we could do if we started using the remaining reservoir of our abilities.

Taken From:THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI