Two studies examined the potential of analysis of motivational content in private speech to sustain a Vygotskian hypothesis on the goal-forming process in achievement motivation. In the first study, 30 preschoolers and first-graders were observed 3 times during a school year while they worked in the classroom. The relative incidence of child utterances with motivational content varied between 14 percent and 21 percent, depending on the group and time of observation. In the second study, the same group of children was observed twice, this time in a structured situation involving a puzzle task. The relative incidence of private speech with motivational content was greater: between 24 and 30 percent. In addition, several subcategories were positively correlated with task performance and persistence. ANCOVA was used as a better way for contrasting of the first time self-guilding comments and causal attributions influence on second time observation achievement. These results have implications both for goal orientation process research and for the study of the motivational function of private speech. (Contains 49 references.) (EV)