The relationship of thought and language to each other and to foreign language learning

The thesis presented four theories of thought and language, and related them to teaching a second language. Piaget's concept of language development, autistic, egocentric, and social directed were discussed in relation to learning of a second language.;This thesis has shown how intricately and essentially connected thought and speech are to each other. It is important to know the workings of this relationship in order effectively to teach or learn a foreign language.;The relationship shows why it is so important to get in touch with the people who speak the new language one is attempting to learn. One must live with them or else make his own little island of the culture and language. He will use already formed concepts when he attempts to learn the new language, but he must keep in mind that the new language has vast differences in its interpretation of life which may be reflected in syntax, gestures, intonation, sentence construction, and the like.;The study shows that language should broaden the learner. The learning of another language, when known as well or almost as well as his own, will reveal to him that there are many ways of living and many outlooks on like things on this multilingual earth. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;In the approach to a foreign language there will be two situations. In one situation we shall already have formed the concept in our own minds and know how to express it in our own tongue. In the other situation we will approach the foreign language without a concept but with the foreign word.