ABSTRACT
Like the last this chapter is concerned with recent studies, but with studies of language use during the years of schooling rather than with the processes of language acquisition. The motivation too is different; it is, in broad terms, the conviction that educational experience is capable of being significantly improved. For many children it is neither happy nor, in measurable terms, successful. Many teachers, too, are less than fully effective. Given the centrality of language to the educational process it is reasonable to think that the study of language use, in classrooms, by pupils and by teachers, may furnish the insights necessary to direct successful intervention.
