verbalizing

Verbalizing is the act of expressing thoughts, experiences, or information through language, especially spoken language. It involves translating internal content into words, phrases, or sentences that can be heard, read, or signed.

In everyday communication, verbalizing enables reporting, explanation, and discussion. It can be spontaneous, as when answering a question, or deliberate, as when giving a presentation. Nonverbal cues often accompany verbalization, but the term emphasizes the linguistic output.

In psychology and education, verbalization is used as a tool to study cognition. Think-aloud protocols have participants articulate their thought processes while completing tasks. Verbalizing feelings or thoughts in therapy can help clients gain insight and improve communication.

In development, children learn to verbalize through language acquisition, moving from babbling to words and sentences, enabling more precise social interaction.

In linguistics, verbalization also refers to the conversion of abstract ideas into language, and to the phenomenon of private speech, where children or individuals talk to themselves to guide behavior.

In technology, verbalization often means natural language generation or the articulation of a model's reasoning, producing human-readable explanations for decisions.