Language, thoughts, and culture: How are words, concepts, and cultures related?

People have concepts within which they categorize objects and events in a shared culture (Revisit Chapter one, P. 10, Third paragraph). People have words for describing the objects and events within a culture. BUT how are the words and concepts related? Do people throughout the world think in basically similar ways? Or, do people who speak different languages see the world differently? Does children's learning of new words trigger the formation of new concepts, or does ability to understand new terms demand that the relevant concepts already be in place?

What is YOUR theory on "how words, concepts, and culture are related?"

Before you continue to read my notes, please STOP and THINK!

Once again, write down some of YOUR thoughts on paper! [Writing as Evolution! Thinking With a Pencil! This is an important cognitive experience for you to have before you answer the question of " Is writing promote children's thinking? How? Why?" ]

Consider three possible relations:

1. Language shapes thought: This position, known as the Whorf Hypothesis is based on the view that language shapes thought so profoundly that "the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up by the language habits of group" (Sapir, 1951). The basic assumptions of this hypothesis are that a culture's language shapes the way members of the culture interpret information about the world, and that differences among languages produce parallel differences in the way that members of each culture view the world.

[Stop and Think: How about children who speak other than English in your classroom? Will they process the information that you are presenting same as English only speaking children? What is teaching implication for young children based on this notion? Write down your thoughts and post it on the webboard.]

2. Thought shapes language: Piaget believed that development of representational abilities at the end of the sensorimotor period makes possible development of language, as well as other forms of representation, such as drawing and mental imagery. Thus, he saw language development as awaiting the relevant cognitive development (development of representational ability), rather than causing it. Within this view, "the linguistic input received by the child appears to have little importance either in determining that a category will be established or in determining the composition of a category" (Mervis, 1987).

[Stop and Think: Do you agree with Piaget's notion on "thought shapes language?" If you do, explain how to find out a process of children's thought that shapes language. Write down your thoughts and post it on the webboard.]

3. Language and thought influence each other: According to Vygotsky (1962), language and thought begin developing independently. By age 2, however, their development becomes intertwined, and they mutually influence each other thereafter within the cultural contexts that the child encounters. The child's thinking about the world is expressed increasingly precisely in language within the culture, and language becomes increasingly effective in directing the child's thought and action. Eventually much of thought becomes internalized language.

[Stop and Think: Let's re-visit and expand the original questions: How are the words and concepts related? Do children throughout the world think in basically similar ways? Why? Why not? Or, do children who speak different languages see the world differently? May children who speak English as second language make sense of teaching and learning differently? Why? Why not? What is a way for YOU to maintain developmentally and culturally appropriate teaching and learning environment for ALL children in your classroom (i.g., DCAP) in relation to this issue? Write down your thoughts and post it on the webboard. ]

References

Mervis, C. B. (1987). Child-basic object categories and early lexical development. In U. Neisser (Ed.), concepts and conceptual development: Ecological and intellectual factors in categorization. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Sapir, E. (1951). The psychological reality of phonemes. In D. G. Mandelbaum (Ed.), Selected writing of Edward Sapir. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Article originally published in French, 1933).

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.