Examines areas where language, thought, and
cognitive process interact. Studies the essential nature of meaning and
mental concepts, the core characteristics of language, and the complex
relations between the two domains.
In one of the seminal works on literacy and
cognition, Frank Smith (Understanding reading) noted that the
core of literate activity is the making of meaning. Furthermore,
literacy involves spoken language as well as written language.
Language, thought, and cognition are three
concepts that have been used in the construction of theories about the
fundamentally cultural role of literacy.
It is impossible to understand literate
activities, in fact all human activity, outside of the contexts of
culture. Meaning constructs and is constructed by culture. Understanding
meaning is impossible without the linguistic framework of culture.
However, it is impossible to understand culture without accounting for
the action of individuals who (re)create culture with the meaning of
their every act.
In this course, we will examine the meanings of
language, thought, and cognition diachronically, though a study of the
way these concepts have changed, and synchronically, looking at their
contemporary meanings through the lens of literacy research.
Students wishing to get a jump on the course
might want to read
Psycholinguistics from the list below:
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.
(ISBN 0-674-00361-8)
Rosenblatt, L. (1994). The reader, the text, and the poem: The
transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern
Illinois University. (ISBN 10-0809-318059)
Smith,
F. (2004). Understanding reading: A psycholinguistic analysis of
reading and learning to read (6th Edition). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates. (ISBN 0-8058-4712-X)
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Language and thought. Cambridge, MA:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Originally published in
1934.) Translated by Michael Cole.
(out of print, available
through library reserve)
Modern approaches to language and literacy have
involved several approaches. One early modern approach to meaning was
developed by Sigmund Freud, who suggested that the meaning of human
thought and action was deeply embedded in a multifaceted mind that the
individual hardly understood. Subsequently, the intuitionism of Freud
was challenged by a behaviorist psychology based on only those aspects
of behavior that could be observed.
In response to the limits of behaviorism as an
explanation for language, Noam Chomsky provided the basis for
understanding that observable behavior was not sufficient to capture the
complexity of language.
However, the cognitive revolution that
began with Noam Chomsy and a number of psychologists like Jerome Bruner,
was soon challenged by the recognition that language, literacy, and
culture cannot be separated from one another. Literacy is the visible
evidence of language and culture is the source and meaning of literacy.
Spoken language cannot be separated from written language, nor can other
cultural artifacts, when viewed as texts themselves, be separated from
one another in an attempt to understand the meanings co-constructed by a
culture and the humans who participate in that culture.
Thus, the current state of the art in
understanding literacy does not permit the separation of cognition from
language. Thus, literacy research is an interdisciplinary effort
requiring researchers and teachers to consider developments from natural
sciences such as biology, to social sciences such as linguistics and
psychology, and humanistic disciplines such as rhetoric.
In defining a course of study that examines
cognition and language, one of the chief problems is to keep the study
grounded in a focus on the larger framework of literacy and culture.
Secondly, in the context of the Composition &
TESOL program, we are interested in both theories of language and
literacy and in the teaching and learning of language and literacy.
Therefore, we will also examine the value of the framework.
