The development of communication from 0 to 2.5 years : a case study

Abstract

The development of language has been one of the most popular fields of study among researchers. The traditional nativist and environmentalist theories of language development have, in recent years, been joined by a third and seemingly more plausible theory: the interactionist perspective. This theory views language learning as "learning how to mean". One way of studying language development within this perspective is by taking a functional approach, wherein language learning is considered as learning to use efficiently the functions of language. After an overview of these three theories of language development, this work used a functional approach to study the development of language of a particular child, Nigel, during his first two-and-a-half years of life. Three periods in Nigel's life were identified namely, 10 to 12 months, the 20th month and the 30th month, during which the child's utterances (specimens of which have been transcribed) were carefully observed and analysed. Since Nigel's linguistic competence started to emerge during the 9th month the child's communication ability during the pre-speech period was also looked into.