ABSTRACT
It is important that teachers consider the strengths and weaknesses of the institution of the school, and the social setting of the classroom, within which much of formal education takes place. Its very institutionalised nature tends to cut off this aspect of a child's experience and learning from the out of school and pre-school experiences and to distance the contribution of the home. Before turning to the classroom it is important to draw attention to a further often overlooked contribution of the home to a child's readiness for instruction. Particularly in the early years of schooling, much of the instruction given by the teacher is through the medium of oral language; while the judgements as to its appropriateness for a particular class are also greatly influenced by the children's responses in spoken language. Gradually, written language as a source of information and as a means of communication begins to assume important proportions in the life of the classroom.
