Cover; The Development of Meaning; Copyright; Acknowledgements; Contents; Part 1; 1. Introduction: The Language and Environment Project; 2. The Development of Language: from First Words to Complex Utterances; 3. The Development of Complexity within Children's Utterances; 4. Language and Meaning; 5. A Classification of the Uses of Language; 6. The Relational Function; 7. The Analysis of 3-Year-Olds' Use of Language; Part II; 8. Sampling the Language Used at 5 and 7 Years Old; 9. Interpreting Experiences; 10. Beyond the Concrete Present; 11. Language and Logical Thinking
12. Language and the Development of Moral Concepts13. Language and Disadvantage in School; 14. The Development of Meaning; Appendix; Table 1. Mean Age and Mean IQ of Groups and Subgroups at Time of First Recording; Table 2. Analysis of Lenth of Utterances; Table 3. Use of Complexity of Structure; Scoring Guide for Noun Phrase Index; Scoring Guide for Verb Complexity Index; Table 4. Analysis of Complexity in Noun ana Verb Phrases and of tho Use of Pronouns; Table 5. Analysis of the Use of Language by 3-Year-Olds; Bibliography; Index
Summary
This book investigates children's use of language and considers its implications for children's learning at home and at school. The author compares the language used by children from different social environments at the ages of three, five and seven and considers the different approaches that children take towards their school experiences. The book discusses the problems of studying children's use and development of language and in doing so looks at the implications of a number of theories. It uses theory in order to establish a useful framework which will help teachers to become aware of the skills that children have established in using language when they come to school
