ABSTRACT
This chapter explores critical approaches to language development. It explores how to think about language development in a broader capacity and how to engage with critical language theory in order to promote best practice in the early years environment. Love in traditional Chinese is made up of a series of strokes, and typical of the traditional Chinese writing system, the character for love contains another character at its centre, the character for heart. In 1986, Gordon Wells conducted a longitudinal study of how language develops in the family environment using observations on the types of language used at home. When talking with children, he found that adults often use single words in an attempt to make language easier to understand. As the Environmentalist and Innatist separated on their core beliefs of the origins of language ability, Bruner added to the existing theories with the theory of Social Interactionism.
