ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a study conducted by the author in the West Midlands in 1980s. It was funded by department of education and science (DES) in 1982–3. The aim of the research is to identify features in school generally and in the classroom organization and practice that appeared to facilitate communication with and between the young children. Five primary schools were selected – three in Birmingham and two in Sandwell – for their varied proportions of children from different ethnic backgrounds, including some for who English was not their mother tongue. A further way in which samples of language were collected was by recording teacher-initiated dialogue in classroom with individual children for whom samples of language were already available. Samples of language in two nursery schools and three nursery classes were made for 25 children, shortly before their transfer to reception class, using radio microphones and a format similar to that used in the research on children with special needs.
