ABSTRACT
Halliday (1975) gives an account describing the process whereby his son, Nigel, acquired his first language. Significantly, this book was called not Learning how to talk, not Learning how to speak, but Learning how to mean. What children are doing in learning their first language is developing a system for meaning. It is true that this system is realized by wordings, but the children’s aim is not simply to produce words, but to influence those around them. They want to get things done, to make social contact, to be part of the world of others. Language does not develop in a vacuum. It develops in response to the need to mean. Our first proposition therefore is:
Our next two propositions are to do with acquisition and learning. One of the puzzles surrounding second language acquisition since the work of Selinker (1972), Corder (1967) and other interlanguage theorists some years ago is that there is often a gap between the language learners know and the language they use. Even though elementary learners know that to make questions in English you invert the subject and the verb or modal: Where are you going? – not *Where you are going? they go through a stage where they get this right when doing an exercise or a test, but when speaking spontaneously they often fail to produce it.
