The language teaching device

An overview is presented which seeks to describe the typical behaviours and features which characterize communicative acts between caregivers and young infants from birth through to the early stages of language acquisition. These behaviours are held to be significantly different from those which may be observed in adult-to-adult discourse. They are automatically adjusted to the received level of language development in the child and are dependent upon the parent-child relationship. It is hypothesized that these special properties of maternal communicative behaviour are crucial in enabling children to substantiate their language learning capacities. To this extent these properties may be perceived as language teaching strategies even though they are not employed with conscious didactic intent. Because these strategies apparently occur universally and with natural spontaneity in the communicative behaviour adopted by adults towards children, the term 'language teaching device' is proposed to encapsulate them. A short consideration is given to the educational implications of the language teaching device for professionals working with children and concerned with promoting language development. Particular reference is made to the very young, the impaired and the developmentally delayed.