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Learning through language in early childhood.

Article Excerpt
Learning through language in early childhood. By CLARE PAINTER. London: Cassell Academic, 1999. Pp. 288. Hardback $82.95. Paper $37.95.

In this volume, Clare Painter explores how children develop language through a systemic approach of construing meaning from the objects, events, people, and experiences that surround them. A student of M.A.K. Halliday, P closely follows Halliday's systemic-functional linguistics (SFL). SFL posits that the learning principles used in acquiring language are not restricted to linguistic processes; rather they are general principles that can be applied to obtaining knowledge in non-linguistic contexts. Thus, language is both a cognitive function to be learned as well as a means of providing us with insight regarding the status of a child's general cognitive development.

In the first chapter, P reviews theories that integrate elements of both language acquisition and developmental psychology. The author classifies the theories under review as either 'individualistic' or 'socially-oriented' depending on their inherent focus.

In her first of two categories, the author considers approaches that center on how an individual's characteristics relate to the overall nature of language and cognition. The discussion includes, most notably, Chomsky's contributions to language acquisition (innate language capacity, the competence/performance distinction, and so on), psycholinguistic approaches, and the work of Jean Piaget.

With respect to Chomskyan approaches to language acquisition, P laments that this branch of linguistics is less interested in the developmental stages that bring about language learning than it is in using facets of child language as evidence to support its theories regarding the structure of language. Psycholinguistic approaches also miss the mark, according to P, because they purport that the primary motivation for the development of language is to put words to thoughts. A further flaw, according to the author, is the tendency of both psycholinguistic and formalist approaches to place emphasis on the universality of linguistic forms rather than the creation of meaning. Regarding Piaget, the author notes that his...

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