Summary

This publication deals with the development of communication, its various stages and influencing factors. Subjects addressed include cognitive processes of language acquisition (Irina Weigl), problems and tasks (Sanne Dijkstra), and pre-school and primary school age groups (Kristiina Kumpulainen and Mika Mutanen). Irina Zimnyaya and Tatyana Poutilowskaja puts forward a communicative approach to the examination of speech development. Nikolai Veresov looks at concept formation in terms of the formation of meaning in the individual. In her investigation into the preverbal stage Kaisa Tolonen examines the significance of mother and infant’s shared attention as a prerequisite of learning how to speak. Poutilovskaja and Choukreeva explore readiness for school in relation to communicative tasks. Sigrun Weigl presents a German language article describing the acquisition of German in a Hungarian day-care centre where one kindergarten teacher spoke only German with the children. Finally, Merja Karjalainen sets out her findings on the way children both use language during play and play with language itself.

Containing both theoretical foundation and experimental examples, these articles serve as a starting point for the “Children and language in a multicultural Europe” project as well as providing a basis and impetus for further study.