1. Specific features of internal speech in the interpretation of the school of LS Vygotsky. Features of the formation of internal speech in ontogenesis

In terms of the scientific study of the problem of inner speech, the works of L.S. Vygotsky (42, 45, etc.). Internal speech, according to Vygotsky, "is a special psychological nature of education, a special type of speech activity, which has very specific features and consists in a complex relationship to other types of speech activity" (45, p. 316). This is primarily determined by the functional purpose of this type of speech, namely the fact that “Inner speech is speech for oneself. External speech is speech for others ”(ibid.).

On the basis of a deep and comprehensive analysis of external and internal speech, LS Vygotsky came to the conclusion that it is illegal to consider internal speech as different from external speech only in the degree of vocalization. They differ in their very nature. “Internal speech is not only not what precedes external speech or reproduces it in memory, but is opposite to external one. Outer speech is the process of turning thought into words ... The inner is the process of reversing from the outside, inward, the process of evaporation of speech into thought ”(45, p. 316).

At the same time, L.S. Vygotsky denied the mechanistic identity of thought and speech, stressing that speech does not represent the mirror image of thought. Speech “cannot be put on an idea like a ready-made dress ... A thought, turning into speech, is rebuilt and modified. A thought is not expressed, but is accomplished in a word ” [139] (45, p. 307). It is the inner speech, being the “living process of the birth of thought in the word,” that reflects the extreme complexity of the relationship between thinking and speech, their contradictory unity. Rightly rejecting the simplistic, behavioral, and idealistic understanding of inner speech, L.S. Vygotsky insisted on an objective historical approach to the study of this problem. The practical implementation of this approach was developed by L.S. Vygotsky theory of the origin and development of internal speech.

Addressing the genesis of internal speech, L.S. Vygotsky considered it most probable that it arises from the so-called egocentric external speech of a preschooler child, which represents, as it were, the initial stage in the development of internal speech. It is noteworthy that the first researcher who drew attention to the special function of the child's egocentric speech was the well-known Swiss psychologist J. P. Piaget. According to his description, egocentric speech is a child’s conversation with oneself out loud, often observed during a game, and not addressed to the interlocutor. J.P. Piaget defined egocentric speech as an expression of the egocentrism of children's thought, as a stage of transition from the initial autism of children's thinking to the growth of socialized thought (172, etc.). In this speech, delivered for himself, but incomprehensible to others, is, according to J.P. Piaget, only a “accompaniment” that accompanies children's activities, and has no independent functional significance. Only gradually does the child’s behavior begin to socialize, and with it the speech also socializes, gradually becoming speech as a means of communication or communication. From this position J.P. Piaget considered the structure and further “fate” of this kind of speech. It is doomed to withering away in parallel with the dying of egocentrism in the child’s thought. Therefore, its development follows a decreasing curve, which drops to zero at the threshold of school age. Thus, according to Zh.P. Piaget, egocentric speech is temporary in speech ontogeny and has no future (172).

L.S. Vygotsky proceeded from a completely different position in the interpretation of egocentric speech. According to his theory, the child's egocentric speech is a “phenomenon” of transition from interpsychic (out-of-directional) functions to intrapsychic (inward, to own consciousness), which is “a general law for the development of all higher mental functions” (43, 45). From infancy, the child gradually acquires the ability to subordinate his actions to the adult's speech instruction. At the same time, mother’s speech and the child’s actions are combined. The organization of the child’s activity is of an interpsychological nature. In the future, this process, “divided between two people,” becomes intrapsychological. Special experimental studies conducted by L.S. Vygotsky showed that egocentric speech, not addressed to the interlocutor, occurs in a child with every difficulty. At first, it is of an expanded nature, with the transition to subsequent ages, it gradually decreases, becomes whispering, and then disappears completely, turning into internal speech.

From the same conceptual position LS Vygotsky also examined the structural features of egocentric speech, expressed in its “deviations from social speech” and determining its incomprehensibility to others. According to the theory of J.P. Piaget, this speech as it gets closer to socialized speech should become more and more understandable, its structural features should also die away with its death. But in reality, as shown by the experiments of LS Vygotsky and as the data of numerous pedagogical observations show, the opposite occurs. The specific features of egocentric speech increase with age, they are minimal at 3 years and maximum at 7 years. As L.S. Vygotsky, in 3 years, the difference between egocentric speech and communicative speech is almost zero; at 7 years, it differs significantly from the “social speech of a three-year-old” in all its functional and structural features. There is a “progressing with age differentiation of two speech functions and separation of speech for oneself and speech for others from a common, undifferentiated speech function” (45, p. 322). The development of egocentric speech in the direction of inner speech is accompanied by an increase in all the distinctive properties characteristic of inner speech.

“Inner speech is dumb, silent speech. This is its main difference, ”LS emphasized. Vygotsky (45, p. 324). It is in this direction that the evolution of egocentric speech takes place. At the same time, the “coefficient of egocentric speech” increases every time when there are difficulties in activities that require awareness and reflection. This suggests that the considered form of speech is not only an accompaniment, but has an independent function, serves the purposes of mental orientation, awareness, overcoming difficulties and obstacles, considerations and thinking, as if serving the child’s thinking. Thus, egocentric speech, according to LS. Vygotsky is internal in mental function and external in structure and represents the earliest forms of the "existence" of internal speech. Investigating and analyzing the nature of egocentric speech with functional, structural and genetic aspects, LS. Vygotsky came to the conclusion that "egocentric speech is a series of steps that precede the development of internal speech" (45, p. 317).

According to the theoretical concept of L. S. Vygotsky, the inner speech of a child is formed much later than his outer speech. The formation of internal speech takes place in stages: first by the transition of unwrapped external speech to fragmentary external, then the last - into a whisper speech, and only then it becomes in the full sense “speech for oneself”, acquiring a minimized and hidden character. The transition from external (egocentric) to internal speech ends with the school age. It is at this age that the child, already possessing external speech in a situation of dialogue, becomes capable of mastering the unfolded monologue speech. According to A.R. Luria, these processes are closely related: “Only after the process of contraction, coagulation of external speech and its transformation into an internal process occurs, does the reverse process become available - the unfolding of this internal speech into an external one, i.e. a coherent speech statement with its characteristic “semantic unity” (146, p. 202).