The Meaning Makers

Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn

By (author) Prof. Gordon Wells

Publication date:

18 August 2009

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847691996

The Meaning Makers is about children’s language and literacy development at home and at school. Based on the Bristol Study, “Language at Home and at School,” which the author directed, it follows the development of a representative sample of children from their first words to the end of their primary schooling. It contains many examples of their experience of language in use, both spoken and written, recorded in naturally occurring settings in their homes and classrooms, and shows the active role that children play in their own development as they both make sense of the world around them and master the linguistic means for communicating about it. Additionally, this second edition also sets the findings of the original study in the context of recent research in the sociocultural tradition inspired by Vygotsky’s work and includes examples of effective teaching drawn from the author’s recent collaborative research with teachers.

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

Notes on Transcription of Dialogue

Extracts

Chapter One The Children and Their Families

Chapter Two Learning to Talk: The Pattern of Development

Chapter Three Learning to Talk: The Construction of Language

Chapter Four Talking to Learn

Chapter Five From Home to School

Chapter Six Helping Children to Make Knowledge Their Own

Chapter Seven Differences between Children in Language and Learning

Chapter Eight The Centrality of Literacy

Chapter Nine The Children’s Achievement at Age 10

Chapter Ten The Sense of Story

Chapter Eleven A Functional Theory of Language Development

Chapter Twelve Towards Dialogue in the Classroom

Chapter Thirteen The Interdependence of Practice and Theory

Epilogue

References

In the first edition of The Meaning Makers, Gordon Wells used a wealth of observational data to demonstrate the importance of talk with adults for children’s learning and development. The book worked especially well because it included the voices of the children and adults in its many illustrative examples. This new edition not only links the original analysis to recent research and contemporary educational issues, but also provides fascinating insights into the changing perspectives of a researcher over the span of a highly productive, international career.