Semiotic mediation, dialogue and the construction of knowledge

When children learn language, they are not simply engaging in one type of learning among many; rather, they are learning the foundations of learning itself. The distinctive characteristic of human learning is that it is a process of making meaning – a semiotic process; and the prototypical form of human semiotic is language. Hence the ontogenesis of language is at the same time the ontogenesis of learning. (Halliday, 1993, p.93) In this paper, I want to explore how this claim relates to the concept of semiotic mediation in cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the writings of the Bakhtin circle and then to consider how the theoretical framework that these scholars provide can be brought to bear, first on early language development, and then on the activity of education. I shall argue that the development of children’s understanding of their world-- of themselves as well as of the content of the curriculum-- needs to be understood in terms of a co-construction of knowledge through jointly conducted activities that are mediated by artifacts of various kinds, of which dialogue is the most powerful. Semiotic Mediation We owe the concept of semiotic mediation largely to the work of Vygotsky and his colleagues