Languaging as Agent and Constituent of Cognitive Change in an Older Adult:An Example
Keywords:
languaging, cognitive change, cociocultural theory, older adult,Abstract
Vygotsky’s writings have established the critical importance of language in the development of higher mental functions, including memory and attention. One of the processes involved in this development is languaging, the activity of mediating cognitively complex ideas using language (Swain, 2006). The present study of an older adult with mild cognitive impairment living in a long-term care facility involves Alise (the resident) narrating a fragment of her life history. We investigate the hypothesis that languaging will restore aspects of cognitive functioning through a microgenetic analysis of ten recorded sessions totaling 18 hours of conversation between Alise and the researcher. We demonstrate that languaging mediates Alise’s ability to recall details of the life history fragment she is recounting with increasing syntactic and lexical sophistication, thus documenting cognitive change.
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with The Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (CJAL) agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the CJAL right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in the CJAL.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the CJAL's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the CJAL.
- Authors will not simultaneously submit the same piece of work for possible publication to more than one academic journal at a time.