Talking to the self: A study of the private speech of adult bilinguals

Despite the fact that the dialogic aspects of private speech have been noted by Bakhtin and Vygotsky, many recent second language acquisition studies have emphasized studying the odd linguistic features of private speech rather than the interactional discourse features. Unlike previous studies of private speech, this qualitative study focuses not only on second language (L2) learners' use of private speech and language alternation as a mediational tool, but also on the dialogic aspects of private speech. Private speech is overtly produced speech to and for the self. It includes both oral and written language behaviors. By analyzing second language learners' use of private speech, this study aims to understand how learners process their higher mental functions in the sociocultural theory of L.S. Vygotsky.; By constructing various trajectories of discourse action sequences, the individual participants in this study utilized their private speech as a self-regulatory mediational tool in order to internalize their study materials. In achieving a clear understanding of their discourse sequences in the private speech data, I elucidate the L2 users' private speech as a mediational tool by describing the self-regulatory functions of private speech and the tendency of language alternation. For example, the use of language alternation in private speech is locally bound to the types of engaged action, and it functions as a type of verbal mediation in the cognitive process of an individual participant. I then demonstrate the dialogic aspects of private speech by illustrating how a single individual can simultaneously take both positions of addressor and addressee.; This study contributes to the sociocultural theory by focusing not only on the regulatory functions of private speech but also on the interactional dynamics of private speech---dialogic aspects of private speech---by showing how private speech originates from social speech through an investigation of discourse sequences, as Vygotsky noted.