Hi Dan, 
 SK>Language acquisition, as I generally understand it, relates more to
 SK>the neurological processes involved in learning a language. This has
 SK>nothing to do with reading, which is learning to decode symbols on a
 SK>piece of paper, or some other medium.
 DT> I may really mean language development.  When I speak of language 
 DT> acquisition I am referring to the acquiring of language (and 
 
 I have studied both linguistics and reading development and the two are 
 not mutually exclusive. I think an analogy has been drawn between language 
 acquisition from the cradle ie by immersion and learning to read by the 
 applicaton of similar strategies in the orientation to print.
 
 DT> vocabulary).  I am basing my use of the term on Brian Cambourne, an 
 DT> Australian researcher, who, after observing children successfully 
 
 Good old Cambourne has been around for ages. I understand that he was in 
 the US this year or last. He is of course of the psycholinguistic 
 persuasion. I believe Ashton Scholastic were a very important publishing 
 house in the late seventies and through the eighties. 
 Don Holdaway (1979) The Foundations of Literacy Ashton Scholastic.
 If you can get your hands on anything by the Primary English Teachers 
 Association of NSW usually edited by RD Walsh and others more recently,
 they are useful.
 
 Thanks for posting this. All my books on this topic are at school. This is 
 very much where I am coming from. 
 DT> engaging in literacy learning developed a set of seven conditions he 
 DT> believed were necessary for successful language acquisition. 
 DT> Cambourne  said these conditions applied to adults as well as children.
 DT> The are  *Immersion* in print; *Demonstration* of the use of texts for
 DT> reading  and writing; *Expectation* where the bond between the student
 DT> and  teacher has the power to facilitate learning.  Here teacher
 DT> expectations  dramatically affect student performance; *Responsibility*
 DT> Learners are  given choices about what they are reading; *Use* Children
 DT> need extended  periods of time to read; *Approximation* A safe
 DT> atmosphere that allows  for mistakes as a natural way to know and
 DT> understand; *Response* where  readers get feedback from, and exchanges
 DT> with more knowledgeable  learners.  Cambourne says that Learners will
 DT> engage in learning if they  see themselves as potential doers of the
 DT> learning and understand how it  will further their lives. 
 DT> "Since the foundation of literacy is language development, early 
 DT> childhood teachers must be aware of the development of language, as
 DT> well  as the factors that influence its development."
 Too true.
 Byeee, 
 Erica.
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