Culture, language and child development

Abstract

This paper begins with a selective review of recent research into the nature of language development after the age of five years. Changes in children's comprehension and use of speech undergoes structural and functional reorganisation between the ages of around six to eight years. This reorganisation implicates developments in both linguistic and cognitive abilities. It is argued that these changes come about in response to a range of communication demands, including narration and other varieties of ‘autonomous speech’. Learning to read and write generates a further set of linguistic and cognitive demands on children which, if mastered, lead to further linguistic elaboration. The paper ends with a discussion of classroom discourse and attempts to identify factors which may serve to promote or to inhibit pupils’ mastery of the later phases of linguistic development.