Interaction and Language Acquisition in Early Childhood

Abstract

This article stresses the need for an approach to language acquisition in early childhood that is not embedded in a transformationalist model. It presents a view of language, self, and other that is consistent with the symbolic interactionaist, pragmatist tradition in sociology. It describes a stage- and level-like model of language acquisition, and it deals with the infant and the young child as active participants in their own linguistic experiences. It compares the acquisition of language in early childhood to the ways in which members of a preliterate culture transmit language to their members. Finally, it offers a socializing model of the linguistic act, based on the work of George Herbert Mead.