This volume systematically applies the accumulated knowledge of developmental psycholinguistics to the field of language instruction. The first part of the book draws together a wide range of theoretical material from developmental psycholinguistics. Furthermore, suggestions are made of how psycholinguistically based material can be graded in the various years of elementary school. The second part presents practical applications, maps out experimentation done in elementary schools, and analyzes the results obtained from a series of interviews and language tests. In closing, a summary is made of the volume's central topics relating to developmental psycholinguistic theory and teaching techniques.

Series Editor's Introduction
THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A PRAGMATIC VIEW: COMMUNICATIVE INTENTIONS
The Nature of Communicative Intentions
Categorizing Communicative Intentions
Communicative Intentions in Schools
FROM WORDS TO SENTENCES
The First Step Towards Sentences: Vertical Constructions
Towards the Nuclear Sentence
Towards the Mastery of Other Sentence Structures
The Sequence of Sentence Acquisition in Italian Children and German Children
Sentence Structures at School. Lexical Development
First Words at School
THE ACQUISITION OF SOME MORPHOSYNTACTICAL ELEMENTS
First Speech, Then Grammar
The Beginning of Morphosyntax
Morphosyntax
Morphosyntax at School
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING
Educational Goals. Interaction in the School Setting
Group Work
EXPERIMENTATION
ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM
Games of Let's Pretend
The Pragmatic Basis of Language
Other Games
Teaching Formats
Concluding Comments
THE INTERVIEW AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE
The Interview
The Results of the Interview
Results Obtained in the Achievement Tests in Second Language at the End of the First Teaching Year (Third Grade)
Results Obtained in Second Language Tests at the End of the Second Teaching Year (Fourth Grade)
The Analysis of Some Morphosyntactic Aspects
Results of the Second Language Test at the End of the Third Teaching Year (Fifth Grade)
Concluding Comments
Conclusion
References
Author Index
Subject Index