18 - The need for a dialogical science

Summary

Language as social activity is essentially dialogic, an activity that is always oriented toward another individual. This chapter sketches the context of Russian and Soviet thinking about language at the beginning of the twentieth century. It considers Vygotsky's context and sources with regard to language as a social activity characteristic of individuals and their community-hence as involving both social and individual language. The chapter discusses the need for a 'dialogical science', and how to understand the term 'dialogic'. It addresses the integrative research program of the Vygotsky Circle, in which the theoretical enterprise mirrored the researchers' forms of scientific practice-their collaborative way of extending science as practice beyond the limits of the individual, self-contained, and un-positioned thinker. Several preferred methods can be found among contemporary dialogical approaches. Generally, qualitative or mixed research methods are preferred to quantitative methods.