Abstract:

The way language contributes to thought, in general, and learning, in particular, has occupied the minds of philosophers and educators from ancient Greece to the present day. Notwithstanding considerable disagreement about the exact nature of this relationship (for a review, see Carruthers, 2002), there seems to be a consensus that being without language impedes the ability of individuals to learn and think, in a rather essential way. Particularly for the acquisition of cognitive skills such as reading and writing, failure to properly internalize and access the coded language – that is, spoken language – is assumed to have rather far-reaching consequences (Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000).

This lecture reports in detail on the achievements of Navon, a 13-year-old deaf boy, over the three-month period following exposure to Logo, a programming language that visualizes specific programming commands by means of a drawing Turtle. Despite an almost complete lack of skills in spoken and sign language, Navon made rather impressive progress in his programming skills, including the acquisition of a notable active written vocabulary, which he learned to apply in a purposeful, rule-based manner. His achievements are discussed with reference to widely held assumptions concerning the relation between language and thought, in general, and the prerequisite of proper spoken language skills for the acquisition of reading and writing, in particular. An attempt is made to highlight the central principles responsible for Navon’s rather unexpected cognitive and linguistic development, including the way it affected his social relations with peers and teachers.

Keywords:

Learning, Cognition, Visualization, Programming, Reading and Writing.