Human speech is not only external, but also internal. Internal conversation refers to the communication of an individual with himself, which can occur both consciously and unconsciously. It is quite difficult to fully answer the question of what inner speech is, as well as to understand its nature. Nevertheless, psychologists managed to formulate the main aspects of this phenomenon.
Each individual communicates with himself. This happens, as a rule, at the level of thoughts. Therefore, if a person's lips do not move and do not make sounds, this does not mean that he does not formulate words and sentences. Inner speech is considered a unique form of thinking, in which a person thinks, analyzes, argues with himself, and so on. It differs from the external one only in the form of manifestation and functions. From this article you will learn the answer to the question: “Inner speech—what kind of speech is it?” In addition, you will become familiar with its role in a person’s life.
Mental speech
Inner speech can be called mental, since it does not always require words. Sometimes it is enough for a person to imagine images and pictures for mental activity. At the same time, he may not notice how the thinking process begins or ends. It goes away on its own, automatically. Mental speech is a kind of connecting thread between a person and the world around him, from which he draws information. In addition, internal conversation can act as a preparation for external conversation, because a person first thinks, and then speaks or acts.
Types of speech: internal and external
Let's figure out how speech is classified. So, there are these types of speech: oral, written and internal. The first two types are combined into such a concept as external speech. Now more details about each of them.
A person uses external oral speech when he needs to reproduce his own thoughts out loud, that is, information formulated in his head. Such speech is carried out with the help of the vocal cords, tongue, lips and other organs of the speech apparatus. It is always aimed at the world around us.
When a person uses inner speech, he always refers to himself. The voice apparatus is not used. Through this communication process, the individual communicates with himself, reasons, analyzes and makes decisions. Psychologists have found that a person begins to resort to inner speech on average at the age of seven. Before this, all the child’s appeals are directed purely at the outside world. In addition, at the age of seven he begins to understand that not every word is worth repeating out loud.
Internal speech is characterized by brevity, fragments, soundlessness, secondary (formed from external communication) and fragmentation. If a person could record it on a dictaphone, the recording would turn out to be incoherent, fragmentary and simply incomprehensible. Such speech is pronounced very quickly and does not have a strict grammatical design.
In external speech, a person uses those structures and phrases that are understandable to his interlocutor. Eye contact, body language and changes in intonation come to the rescue. All this helps make the message as accurate as possible.
Depending on the level of involvement of a person, self-talk varies. If an individual really has a conversation with himself, then he uses speech that is external in nature. When a conversation is conducted unconsciously, then it has a predicative or directive character. Such speech is usually short and unfocused. In this case, no reasoning occurs - the person simply makes a decision and motivates himself to action.
Before saying something out loud, a person thinks and selects expressions, composes sentences and phrases. This does not happen with internal speech - instead of clear sentences, short phrases or just words are used. The lack of words in self-talk can be compensated by the images represented.
Answering the question “What is internal speech?”, it is worth noting that it is not only a way of making decisions or comprehending past events, but also preparation for external speech, which is divided into oral and written.
Usually, when speaking about external speech, it is its oral type that is meant. It involves speaking and listening to words. Oral speech can be everyday (colloquial) and public.
Written is called graphically designed external speech, built on the basis of letters and other images. Despite its written form, it has most of the characteristics of oral expression of thoughts, in terms of structure and vocabulary. At the same time, written speech has stricter rules for conveying thoughts through words than oral speech. The difficulty of correspondence, compared to a live conversation, is that it cannot be embellished with gestures and facial expressions. Thus, internal speech and external (written or oral) are completely different concepts.
Mechanism of development of inner speech
In psychology, there is still no unified theory about how the formation of inner speech occurs. It is generally accepted that this begins in childhood; the child’s inner speech is formed under the influence of adults. The contradiction and problem of the phenomenon is as follows: some authors believe that it develops from the external. Others are sure that it develops along with the external one. Let's look at two popular theories.
According to Vygotsky
According to L.S. Vygotsky, conversation within the personality develops from the child’s external speech, directed at himself (egocentric). Those people who have children have probably seen that while playing, a young child often talks to himself. Psychologists call this egocentric speech.
In what period is a child’s inner speech formed: 3–5 years. As the child grows up, conversations with oneself go deeper and deeper and turn into conversations “to oneself.” Usually the transition is completed by the beginning of schooling, that is, by 6–7 years. Further development occurs as a result of mastering writing.
According to Blonsky
P.P. Blonsky believes that the internal type of communication develops along with the external one. Already in the first year of life, the child silently repeats the words with which adults address him. Further development occurs along with the development of external communication.
Vygotsky's view
Psychologists from all over the world have paid quite a lot of attention to the question “What is inner speech?” The Soviet scientist Lev Nikolaevich Vygodsky achieved considerable success in this direction. In his opinion, a person’s internal speech is a consequence of “communication for oneself” or egocentric speech, which is formed in childhood, when the child begins to master external forms of speech. Preschool children use formulations that are not always understandable to adults. Egocentric speech serves as the foundation for the development of inner speech. Initially, only a child understands it, but over time, after a series of transformations, it acquires signs of an increasingly meaningful thought process.
The formation of external and internal speech in children is different. The formation of external speech occurs according to the principle “from simple to complex.” From words a phrase emerges, and from phrases a sentence emerges. With inner speech, the opposite is true: the whole sentence is parsed into phrases and words, the comprehension of which occurs separately.
Oral speech
Oral speech is speech addressed directly to someone. It is expressed in sounds and is perceived by other people through hearing. Oral speech is the most ancient in origin. Children also learn oral speech first, and then written speech. Oral speech manifests itself in monologue and dialogic forms.
Dialogical speech means a conversation between two or more persons who either listen when others speak, or speak when they are listened to. The one who is speaking at the moment is an active person, and the one who listens is passive in relation to the speaker.
However, passivity in dialogue is relative, since the perception of speech is an active process, sometimes requiring far from easy mental activity from the listener. In the process of verbal communication, the interlocutors change roles and support each other in conversation, which is why dialogical speech is sometimes called supported speech. Exchange of roles allows interlocutors to better understand each other.
A characteristic feature of dialogical speech is direct communication: the interlocutors hear and most often see each other. This circumstance allows speakers to use expressive means of language: voice intonation, facial expressions, gestures.
At the same time, the speaker can observe (in conditions of mutual vision) the reactions of listeners to his speech, attention or inattention to it, the degree of understanding, agreement or disagreement, etc. These observations allow the speaker to adjust his speech, repeat some thoughts, expand or, conversely, curtail reasoning, strengthen or weaken expressive means of speech.
Thus, a teacher conducting a conversation with students in a lesson not only directs the children’s thoughts and statements with his questions, but also constantly changes the nature of his speech depending on the students’ reaction to it.
Dialogue speech
Dialogical speech occurs in specific conditions, and the subject of the conversation is familiar to the interlocutors. This allows them, in some cases, to understand each other perfectly. Therefore, in a free dialogue (in a normal conversation between two or more people), the interlocutors do not always adhere to language rules, shorten sentences, and supplement what is said with facial expressions, gestures, and unique intonations.
Monologue speech
Monologue speech is the speech of one person. He speaks and others listen. This type of speech includes various speeches by one person before an audience: a lecture, a report, a message, a deputy’s speech, an actor’s monologue, etc. A monologue is a speech that is continuous and unsupported by listeners.
In this sense, it is more difficult than dialogue. Before speaking, the speaker must think through the content of the speech, the plan for presenting thoughts, the form of presentation, taking into account the audience, its preparation, experience and knowledge. He assumes in advance that it may turn out to be complex and unclear, what questions the listeners may have, and how they will react to his speech.
All this gives the author a feeling of high responsibility for the content, form and composition of the speech. Monologue speech requires compliance with the laws of logic and the rules of grammar. The power of its influence is achieved by the persuasiveness of evidence (scientific and business speech), imagery and expressiveness, and influence on the feelings of listeners (speech of a speaker, artist).
The teacher's speech should contain all these means. Monologue speech requires not only mandatory preliminary preparation, but also continuous attention to one’s own speech (its content, persuasiveness, linguistic perfection, etc.) and to the reactions of listeners. In other words, monologue speech requires the speaker to have a high culture of thinking, speech and psychological observation.
A monologue is difficult not only for the speaker, but also for the listeners, whose attention must be stable and focused for a long time. The perception of monologue speech is especially difficult for children, and the younger they are, the more so. The reason for this is not only the lack of stability of children’s attention, but also the uniqueness of the object of attention: attention to words, to the content of speech, and even more so to the sequence of the speaker’s reasoning is always more difficult than attention to real things and phenomena.
Monologue speech in its structure is closer to written speech than dialogical speech.
Written speech
Written speech is expressed by graphic signs and is perceived by sight. It is a type of speech with which communication between people separated by long distances and time is possible. Psychological analysis of written speech shows that it is more difficult than oral speech, both for those who convey thoughts through it, and for those who perceive these thoughts.
The writer conveys the content of speech without using such auxiliary means of language as intonation, facial expressions, and gestures, which facilitate the understanding of thoughts. The writer cannot always take into account the reaction of readers to his speech, because he does not see, does not hear, and often does not know them.
The circle of readers of books, newspapers, and magazines is very wide and diverse. Readers are also deprived of the opportunity to directly express their opinion about the content and form of what is written. To become accessible to a wide range of readers, written speech must be structured as detailed, fully consistent with the rules of logic and grammar.
Written speech places great demands on the person who uses it. Written speech can be dialogical and monological.
Inner speech is speech “to oneself”, with the help of which logical processing of sensory data occurs, their awareness and understanding in a certain system of concepts and judgments. A person does not directly address other people with it, but through it a thought is formed and exists.
Inner speech is difficult to study, so psychologists have understood and understand its essence in different ways. I. Muller called it “speech minus sound,” and behaviorists called it a hidden speech skill. L. S. Vygotsky considered inner speech to be the central link in the path of the transition of thought into word and words into thought, a special internal plane of verbal thinking. A. N. Sokolov defines it as a speech mechanism of mental activity (types of human activity).
The Soviet psychologist B.F. Baev, in his study of the nature of inner speech, points out its essential feature - dependence on the needs that it serves. Inner speech not only forms thought, it is an essential component in all human cognitive processes.
Sensation and perception are mediated by speech: sensing the properties of objects around us (colors, sounds, smells), we call them “to ourselves”; speech helps us comprehend and clarify everything we perceive. Without it, observation, meaningful memorization and recollection, voluntary attention, imagination, etc. are impossible.
The role of inner speech in thinking is especially great: it organically participates in all thought processes, both complex and simple.
Inner speech is a means of emotional-volitional regulation and a condition for self-education. In the educational activities of schoolchildren, internal speech appears primarily in a receptive form (listening to the teacher’s explanations, understanding them) and in a productive form, preparing students’ external speech.
With the help of this type of speech, complex speech forms are formed. “Being a “laboratory of thought,” inner speech is at the same time a “laboratory of language” (B.F. Baev). It is not only a product of speech development, but also its most important means.
Problem
It is quite difficult to study internal speech, because at first glance it differs from external speech only in the absence of sound. In fact, a person's conversation with himself is not at all similar to a conversation with another person.
A person’s inner speech is always fragmentary and curtailed. A conversation with an interlocutor always has a more or less clear structure. Sentences are constructed logically and clearly. Inner speech can be reflected in actions. It does not necessarily indicate the subject in question. It is enough just to consider its properties, which have an incentive character.
The language of inner speech consists not only of words, but also of other forms that are understandable to humans: these are pictures, diagrams, images, details, etc. A person does not need to verbally express everything that he imagines in his head. To start thinking, you just need to remember the picture you saw or just your impressions of it.
What is inner speech
Inner speech is, in psychology, a person’s dialogue with himself, reasoning “to himself.” This is speech addressed inside the personality itself, an appeal to oneself. It helps to analyze, process, interpret the feelings and emotions of the individual. We turn to ourselves when we solve some problems, remember or imagine something, make plans, dream, fantasize.
Most people know this as mentally constructing dialogues or acting out certain situations. With the help of reasoning, the individual comes to awareness and understanding of external phenomena. According to the theory of psychologist B.F. Baev, reasoning permeates all cognitive processes: sensation, perception, observation, memorization, recollection, attention, imagination, and others.
This is a means of self-regulation, self-education, introspection, self-development. It’s not for nothing that psychologists advise speaking out a problematic situation out loud. The information spoken to oneself is incomplete and generalized (we’ll talk more about this in the paragraph “Features of inner speech”). Speaking out loud or writing down information helps to better understand what is happening, to see the overall picture, structure, details, cause-and-effect relationships.
Speaking about internal speech, it is impossible not to highlight the problem of external speech, because external and internal speech are two interrelated elements. Domestic psychologist L.S. Vygotsky viewed reasoning within a person as a connecting element between the transition of thoughts into words and vice versa.
Peculiarity
The peculiarity of inner speech is that it is difficult to differentiate it, since in the process of thinking an individual can use all known and personally understandable forms of representing what he is thinking about. When talking to yourself, there is no need for complex sentences, since you can understand yourself without words. It is much more convenient to imagine a certain image that most fully conveys the meaning of reflection than to choose words to describe it.
Inner speech gives rise to thoughts, and is not a consequence of them. It often serves to generate thoughts and is the connecting element between thought and external speech, used to convey one's ideas to other people.
Inner speech begins in childhood, so it is full of bizarre and fantastic images imagined by the child. As a person grows up, when talking to himself, he increasingly resorts to verbal forms of expressing thoughts and uses not invented pictures, but those seen in real life.
Bottom line
All people communicate with themselves. This is a normal process that allows you to think through thoughts, convince yourself of something, calm yourself down, make decisions, analyze situations, etc. A person needs to communicate with himself when he comes to an internal balance, negotiates with himself, finds a compromise, which is beneficial to him. The result is maintaining a calm mental balance.
There is not a single person who does not communicate with himself. Sometimes a person simply does not realize this process, which occurs automatically. A person does not have to consciously be in the process of communicating with himself. An act when thoughts are simply generated in the head, often automatically, is sufficient.
The unconsciousness of actions and spoken words is formed on this basis. A person does not consciously participate in the process of generating ideas, he automatically forms them, obeying them. Only then does he analyze and draw conclusions about how correct they were in a given situation. If a person does not agree with something, then he begins to regret that he did not take an active part in the thinking process.
Inner voice
When considering the question of what inner speech is, it is worth emphasizing such a phenomenon as the inner voice. The inner voice is a certain hidden force that in a difficult situation helps a person make the right decision. Sometimes it is also called intuition. Internal dialogue, from a psychological point of view, is the result of the interaction of three human ego states: “child”, “adult” and “parent”. Despite the age of the individual, these states are always present in his thinking, and in a difficult situation they come into conflict. As a result, the inner voice can give advice, criticize us, appeal to common sense, and so on. Research has shown that inner speech and inner voice are intracerebral impulses, and when a person thinks that voices are coming from outside, they are actually coming from within.
