This article focuses on the language foundation for education. A brief overview of various linguistic theories as they relate to education are offered. The contrast between the functional, natural, self-generated, and contextually relevant characteristics of talk and writing are explored. (DF)

As children move toward learning specified forms of writing, they organize print in their environment and learn generalized communication strategies. Learning to write is developmentally similar to the acquisition of oral language. Ten stages are suggested for understanding the development of children's writing. (JN)

Designed to explore the ways language functions to help children gain access to meaning as they progress through the educational system, this journal issue views communication as a social, interactive process in which speakers and writers attempt to link into what listeners and readers know, want to know, or need to know. The 12 articles in the…