Study Of 3～4-year-old Children’s Private Speech In Kindergarten

Children’s language is an effective way to understand children themselves.The private speech is a form of children’s speech.It belongs to external speech in form,but functions as internal thinking and reflects the children’s inner thoughts.This study hopes to explore children’s inner world through children’s vivid soliloquy.The thesis aims to help children develop their own abilities by understanding children’s private speech,and to enhance educators’ attention to the value of children’s private speech to promote their development.The researcher uses case study method,one of the qualitative research methods.Based on the observation and statistics,two children with highest frequency of private speech are chosen as the subjects.The researcher focuses on children’s daily life in the kindergarten and conducts a9-month original data collection in which children’s private speech is collected and the situational process of children’s private speech is objectively recorded.By the means of observation and interview,the researcher knows what children say to themselves and what affects children’s private speech.Moreover,the paper further figures out why private speeches appear and what their“values”are.Based on the bottom-up step-by-step coding analysis of the original data as well as the analysis of the scene when private speech occurs,the thesis draws conclusions after summarizing and inducing:(1)The types of private speech of 3～4-year-old children in kindergarten are divided into external-oriented,internal-oriented,and non-directional-oriented;(2)Children’s physical and mental development,life experience,family education,teacher’s teaching styles and types of activities are the main factors affecting children’s private speech behavior.This study also analyzes the generation and value of private speech from the perspective of Vygotsky’s theory of children’s language and Tokieda Motoki’s theory of language process: Private speech is generated by internal needs with the source and activity events serving as the mediator.For the generators of private speech,private speech can promote their language development and help develop thinking,assist activities,and regulate the physical and mental health of children.For educators,they can learn more about the inner world of children through private speech,and help them adjust their education methods in time.