This study concentrated in its objective on elucidating the relations between private speech and self-regulation, as viewed from the perspective of Vygotsky. With this in view, this study made an attempt to scrutinize what differences were shown of fr...
This study concentrated in its objective on elucidating the relations between private speech and self-regulation, as viewed from the perspective of Vygotsky. With this in view, this study made an attempt to scrutinize what differences were shown of frequencies, types, and contents of task-relevant externalized private speech by difficulty (easy
or difficult), task familiarity (familiar or unfamiliar), and task
performance ability (upper, middle, or lower) in two tasks, including a perceptual task and a semantic tas For that purpose, carried out on 73 five-year olds were a primary
experiment (on difficulty) and a second experiment (on familiarity). The primacy experiment gave the testees an easy task and a difficult task for each of a perceptual task (paper-folding) and a semantic task (story-sequence). And the second experiment gave a new task and a familiar task for each of the task types. Experiments were carried out
individually, and records and copies were made of private speech that took place during the performance of task using a miniature microphone and a CCTV camera. And then an analysis was conducted of the frequency and types of private speech, and the contents of task-relevant externalized private speech.
As for analysis of data, a repeated-measurement-based multiple analysis of variance was prosecuted first to clarify differences among frequencies, types, and contents of private speech by task difficulty, task familiarity and task performance ability, and subsequently simple comparisons were made by means of a one-way analysis of variance to test differences. Results were revealed, as follows:
First, as to the frequency and types of private speech, contents of task-relevant externalized private speech by task difficulty, a higher frequency was shown of private speech in difficult tasks both in the perceptual task and in the semantic task. In the perceptual tasks, such private speeches were disclosed as those related to tasks, i.e
explaining, expressing plans and goals, questions and answers directed to the self, and task-relevant emotional expression. However, the semantic task showed a tendency often using explaining, in case of a difficult task. Second, as to the frequency and types of private
speech, contents of task-relevant externalized private speech by task familiarity, a higher frequency was represented of private speech from unfamiliar tasks than from familiar ones, both in the perceptual and in
the semantic tasks. And task-related private speeches were much presented in case of an unfamiliar task both in the perceptual and in the semantic tasks, and explaining was frequently used.
Third, an elucidation was carried out of what differences were shown among the frequency and types of private speech, contents of task-relevant externalized private speech by task performance ability.
Consequently, it was revealed that the higher frequency of private speech was found in the middle group of task performance ability than the upper and the lower groups, especially with the frequent presentation of such words related to explaining in private speech.
The aforementioned results suggests that private speech plays a self-regulation function, as Vygotsky insists. With this in mind, one thing to note here is that more follow-up studies should be conducted of patterns of private speech by task performance ability, and that we need take into account individual variables, including intelligence, sex, sociality, and individual abilities, in scaffolding schemes for the facilitation of young childrens private speech.