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Change versus Development in External Speech: Truck-Puzzle Experiments Re-evaluated

Toyama Prefectural University, Japan, berducci{at}pu-toyama.ac.jp

This research critiques Wertsch's truck-puzzle experiments by first questioning if those results constituted linguistic artifacts, and questioning if the resulting referential continuum comprised a legitimate developmental form. The participants in the original truck-puzzle experiments interacted using American English and Portuguese. To determine if the results were linguistic artifacts, they were compared with those of functionally related Japanese data, which were found to verify the original findings. Additionally, from this comparison, a new referential form was discovered. Finally, the original referential continuum was found to consist of forms that constitute change rather than development. Wertsch's work is valuable in that it refines and supplements Vygotsky's notion of external speech. This current research partially verifies Wertsch's findings, uncovers an additional referential form, argues for new developmental continua, and appends the results to Vygotsky's original developmental continuum, generating a more sensitive tool with which to analyze microgenesis.

Key Words: development versus change • intersubjectivity • monologic versus dialogic analysis • Vygotsky's developmental continuum

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