Private speech in the development of collaborative tasks in English

Abstract

Second language/foreign language acquisition research based on the principles of sociocultural theory reveals the need for studies that investigate the use of private speech by adult learners engaged in collaborative tasks. This article aims to discuss the role of private speech in English as a foreign language learning, based on the analysis of its use by adult learners engaged in a collaborative task in Brazil. The data analysis suggests that private speech mediated the search for self-regulation in task completion, when the nature of the dialogue was collaborative, promoting learning situations. In the search of mastering a new language, it was observed that adult learners have produced private speech in the mother tongue in testing solutions for failures highlighted in the foreign language production. Another strategy used was repetition for the selection of words or structures for analysis and lexical search, in an attempt to stay focused and continue the production piece-by-piece, thus facilitating the performance of learners. The data also suggest that, when the proficiency level was below what the task demanded, the private speech alone was not sufficient for the learners to achieve success in the task, serving as a means of noticing the gaps in the linguistic knowledge.

Key words: private speech, collaborative dialogue, foreign language.