Vygotsky’s concepts of ‘inner speech’,‘sense’,‘inner speech field’ and situation model of text / Los conceptos vygotskianos ‘discurso interior’,‘sentido’,‘campo del discurso interior’ y el modelo situacional del texto

Abstract

In this article, we address the contribution of Vygotsky to contemporary knowledge of language comprehension and production including their development. We compare his concepts of ‘sense’ and ‘sense field’, or ‘inner speech field’, with state-of-the-art concepts of situation model of text and embodied comprehension. According to Vygotsky, speech comprehension comprises several sequential stages which include decoding of the external speech meaning, then its translation into senses in inner speech and, finally, identification of a thought and motive of an interlocutor. Language production is a reversed process. Therefore, in Vygotsky’s opinion, sense is the content of inner speech which mediates language production and comprehension. Vygotsky’s concepts are compatible with present understanding of the situation model of text on the deepest levels of language production and comprehension. Furthermore, his ideas have greater explanatory power, in particular, due to developmental analysis of the inner speech field. Its development implies interiorization of external forms of mental activity and divergence between optical and sense fields, resulting in emergence of the internal aspect of consciousness.