Some Antecedents of Early Educational Attainment

Abstract

This report draws on a longitudinal study of language development in 32 children from one to seven years of age and involves data from recordings of spontaneous conversation in the home, interviews with the parents, tests and teachers’ assessments. The results show that scores on measures of oral language at successive age‐points yield progressively stronger predictions of later educational attainment. Of even greater significance, however, are differences between the children on entry to school in their understanding of and interest in literacy. With respect to both oral and written language, differences between the children are found to be associated with differences in the content and style of their parents’ interactions with them but, whilst such differences are only marginally associated with social class in the case of oral language, there is a strong association between literacy and class. These results are discussed in terms of alternative theories of linguistic disadvantage.

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