The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has
completed a new language curriculum for children aged four to eight years.
This development brings a renewed and welcome focus on the relationship
between language and schooling and provides fresh opportunities for enquiry
and discussion as to how to support communication and language teaching
and learning for a diverse population of children. Two fields of knowledge,
from different areas of the language literature, provide particular insights
in this regard. In the field of language acquisition theory and research, a
dominant position has emerged on the nature of language acquisition and
development. In the field of research on the relationship between language
and school achievement, there is an established position on the nature and
quality of language knowledge required within a curriculum. In this article,
each of these positions from these differing areas of the literature is explored
and analysed and it is argued that they each contribute to informing an
inclusive and relevant practice. In the final section of the article, two examples
of language teaching and learning are presented and analysed. The examples
are drawn from practice and research in the Irish context and they illustrate
the exploration, in practice, of the research positions outlined in the article.