Creating a language-rich classroom

Abstract

This chapter addresses the primacy of language for learning and the importance of language in creating learning classrooms. Language is fundamental to learning and fundamental to being human: it is language that distinguishes from animals. Although animals can communicate, only humans can use language to reflect on the past, to communicate complex abstract ideas or emotions, and to shape or imagine new futures. The relationship between thinking and language has been explored most comprehensively by L. Vygotsky, who highlights the symbiotic relationship between the two: thoughts are not mentally ‘translated’ into words, rather thought and language interacts together to generate new knowledge and understanding. Language is thus not only an intrapersonal ‘psychological tool’ that allows to crystallise and represent thought to ourselves, but also an interpersonal ‘cultural tool’ that provides ‘a means for people to think and learn together’.