Applied linguistics and work psychology: the contribution of the regulating activity concept to the clinic of activity

Abstract

This essay is organized in four parts. In the first and second part, I present and discuss the way Yves Clot, based on one of Vygotsky’s conferences (given in 1930), enlarges and makes use of concepts developed in the language studies (specially the bakhtinian ones) in order to carry out activity studies. Afterwards, I present and explain the way I myself, following these procedures, developed the concept of regulating activity, which turns out to be a contribution to the clinic of activity. In the third and fourth part, by means of a critical reinterpretation of the data analyzed by two French researchers associated to the clinic of activity, I demonstrate the way the concept of regulating activity can productively be employed in the analysis of predominantly linguistic or non-linguistic activities.