ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters, a number of conclusions have been presented (some tentative, some more definite) concerning both the actual course of communicative competence development and the explanations for that development. In the discussion there have been occasions on which it has become necessary to admit that data are ambiguous with respect to alternative possible analyses, that studies have not been designed to elicit the crucial data, or that it is unclear whether crucial data have been obscured by other factors in the experimental or observational situation. This book has deliberately tried not to hide the contradictions and conflicting conclusions evident in the literature, but instead to present a fair picture of the current state of our knowledge, even where this means admitting to confusion.
