Learning Through Language in Early Childhood

This text presents a naturalistic case study of one child's use of language in the pre-school years from two-and-a-half to five, drawing on systematic functional theory to argue that cognitive development is essentially a linguistic process. It offers a description and interpretation of linguistic and cognitive developments during this period. The child's changing language is examined in terms of its role in interpreting four key domains of experience: the world of things, the world of events, the world of semiosis (including the inner world of cognition) and the construal of cause and effect. It shows how new linguistic possibilities constitute developments in cognitive resources and prepare the child for later learning in school.