83

English translation 2006 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text Chto
takoe vidy rechevoi deiatelnosti? in Iazyk i rechevaia deiatelnost v obshchei i
pedagogicheskoi psikhologii (Moscow and Voronezh: IPO MODEK, 2001), pp.
38588. Published with the permission of Dmitry A. Leontiev.
Translated by Nora Favorov.
Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, vol. 44, no. 3,
MayJune 2006, pp. 8386.
2006 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved.
ISSN 10610405/2006 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753RPO10610405440307
A.A. LEONTIEV
What Are the Types of
Speech Activity?
It is important to understand that the types of speech activity
taught in the mother tongue differ from methods of teaching for-
eign languages. We attribute these ideas to the renowned linguist
and educator, Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba.
In essence, it is both a methodological and a psychological con-
cept. After all, learning to read, write, and speak is essentially the
formation of specific verbal skills and the speech or communica-
tive-speech abilities that are based on them (here is meant the use
of skills for solving various specific problems, primarily of a com-
municative nature). The various types of speech skills and speech
abilities are indeed types of speech activities. Four main types of
speech activities are usually identified: reading, auditory articula-
tion (listening; they share the designation of receptive types of
speech activity); spoken language, and writing (together with writ-
ten speech; the last two types of speech activity are usually desig-
nated as productive).
The concept of types of speech activity in the methodology of a
native language allows for a clearer understanding of the psycho-
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84 JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN PSYCHOLOGY
logical principles underpinning the formation of corresponding
skills and abilities. It is logical to expect that methodological tech-
niques, types of exercises, and so on, must relate to the structure
and formation of corresponding psychological mechanisms, which
are always complex and contain many levels.
In practice, the need to support the formation of separate psy-
chological operations and their complexities must be considered
with the interaction of different types of speech activity, their mutual
intertwining, especially regarding the solution of complex com-
municative problems. For example, underestimating the work in
forming phonemic hearing gives rise to a number of mistakes in
writing.
The great Vygotsky wrote in one of his works: It is not thought
that thinks, but a person. In just the same way, it is not the hand
that writes, not the tongue that speaks, and not the ear that listens.
A person, as an integral subject of psychological activity, as a per-
sonality, uses his speech skills (in the broad sense of the word) and
abilities in life to solve the problems that confront him. And it is
necessary to be literate not so much to receive a high school di-
ploma as to become a full-fledged person among other people, to
fully realize oneself.
Any normal child can speak and hear (but not listen!). Nonethe-
less, in methodology we talk about the development of speech.
What is it that is developed? What is developed is the ability to
define the communicative problem (what is it I want to achieve?),
to be aware of ones speech, to make it volitional, and to be able to
adequately select linguistic or speech means for the attainment of
the goals at hand. But, in addition to the simplest speech skills
(which are in fact extremely complex) and equally simple com-
municative abilities (for example, dialogic speech or primer read-
ing), we teach more complex (to say the least!) abilities based on
the same skills. It is these complex abilities of spoken language
that are combined in the School 2100 system in the discipline of
Rhetoric. The child who is able to communicate well with his
parents or children his own age must learn from scratch how, for
instance, to answer during school classes (the simplest form of
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MAYJUNE 2006 85
public speaking). To be able to hear what your conversation part-
ner is saying is different from listening to and understanding what
your teacher is saying during a lesson and being able to correctly
react to it.
The case of auditory articulation (listening) is no less compli-
cated. It seems to many that this is something that does not need to
be taught. Indeed, in many children, the listening ability forms
spontaneously, without our active participation. However, years
will pass, and it will turn out that during a lesson in one of the
higher grades, one such child is not able to isolate the important
points of what the teacher is saying and to memorize them, or
even to concentrate on the process of listening at all. For some
reason this is often called laziness or inattention, and the child
himself is blamed. But he is the last one to blame: this is the result
of insufficient education.
The Chinese sage Confucius taught that if something does not
turn out right, the worthy man blames himself and the fool blames
someone else. Our teachers and methodologists would do well to
take Confuciuss commandment to heart.
As far as writing is concerned, to teach writing is something
entirely different from teaching written speech, the written expo-
sition of ones own thoughts. Teaching someone to memorize and
express someone elses thoughts cannot be considered an adequate
preparation for writing. Indeed, graduates of nonspecialized high
schools are not able, for the most part, to write a commercial,
scientific, or literary text. But they will need many of these abili-
ties in institutions of higher education, at work, and simply in life.
To teach written language is to open up an entirely new horizon of
communicative possibilities for a pupil.
It is hardly correct to work on reading or writing, or on
spoken language and listening separately and in a disconnected
way. In the pupils mind they are inseparable, and they merge to-
gether in any event, no matter how we might teach them. Would it
not be better from the very beginning to construct integrated read-
ing and writing lessons? This is exactly what we do in our system.
And there are two more misconceptions. The first is that teach-
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86 JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN PSYCHOLOGY
ing reading, writing, and so on, must take place during special
classes of reading or writing.
The second misconception is that reading and writing fulfill a
propaedeutic function only as they relate to a native language and
literature (and generally speaking to the educational area of phi-
lology). In fact, teaching reading, writing, spoken language, and
listening can and should be conducted in all lessons, even includ-
ing mathematics. After all, a mathematical text is a special kind of
text with its own language. Often even students in the higher classes
cannot solve a problem only because they do not know how to
correctly read and understand it, to make sense of it. The same is
true for biology, chemistry, history, and all other subjects. In gen-
eral, a thorough education in the types of speech activities in ones
native language is a condition for the successful study of the activ-
ity of a pupil within any educational discipline.
It is therefore difficult to overestimate an integrated instruc-
tional approach to varying types of speech activity in the elemen-
tary school, as it relates to the future of a child. A pupils formal
literacy is not the primary task of the elementary school (although
it would be ridiculous to deny its necessity). Here the foundation
of the childs functional literacy must be established, as well as
the capability for proficient spoken and written communication.
And, at the same time, this is a tool of a childs self-development,
which creates a favorable environment for the development of the
childs self-education and socialization, and his/her overall val-
ues, relating to cognitive growth, personality and aesthetics.
To order reprints, call 1-800-352-2210; outside the United States, call 717-632-3535.
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