A Study Of The Relations Between Private Speech And English Vocabulary Memorization Of Chinese College Students

Private speech—an important psycholinguistic conception has gained considerable attention on cognitive development and second language research. There are two forms of private speech:overt and covert. Overt private speech is expressed out loud, whereas covert private speech is expressed inside the mind and not spoken aloud. For the purpose of the present study, the researcher concentrated on overt or out loud speech. This thesis introduces the viewpoints of the two main psycholinguists Piaget and Vygotsky and their followers in the field of private speech. Then, it identifies some primary divergence of views about private speech, including the definitions, the categories, and the differences from self-talk. Thirdly, the study about private speech is presented with the informants, the design and the results included. The researcher concentrated on three typical cases and made analyses of their performances on memorization and their private speech. Qualitative instruments were used to elicit data that gave insight into college students’usage of private speech. The college students used private speech when memorizing, which had an influence on their memorization. The study identified a number of factors that contributed to these perceptions. It revealed that college students’usage of private speech was relevant to many factors—their learning habits, characteristics, task difficulty, and the social context. Some students were used to keeping quiet while some liked speaking loud when memorizing English words. The extrovert students were more likely to use private speech than the introvert ones. The students used more private speech when they came across difficult words and when they were in the environment with pressure from others around them. Finally, in this thesis, some recommendations are made for private speech as well as for further research.