ABSTRACT
Research into the context of language development has become common place in recent years. This is in sharp contrast to the focus of previous years, which emphasized the autonomy and uniqueness of language development and the endogenous determination of the developmental process. Contextbased research, however, reflects a renewed concern with seeking fuller ex planations, especially with probing the general hypothesis that factors exter nal to the child can account for nontrivial aspects of the process.
