We can take it for granted that by the time a child enters nursery he/she will have acquired much of the grammatical system of his/her native language, much of the sound system and a substantial vocabulary. Although there will be individual differences between children, all will have used language to express meanings, to communicate with others and to make sense of the world in which they are growing up. In using language they also learn about language, their own and the language of others. This chapter focuses on the important role speaking and listening activities have in the life of the young child. It begins with an overview of the child's early language acquisition and the different perspectives offered by those researching language, and goes on to discuss the role of the adult in developing a child's spoken language. The complexity of the acquisition process can only be lightly sketched here, the emphasis being on the importance of interaction in learning and learning to talk. This is followed by suggestions for classroom-or home-based activities. Language acquisition-differing perspectives Until the late 1950s the prevailing views on language acquisition were largely influenced by behaviourism until the work of Noam Chomsky marked a turning point in theories about the nature of language and the nature of language acquisition. The behaviourists' claim that language is learned through the acquisition of linguistic
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