Editorial

Language and its development is a topic of perennial interest, and particularly so in relation to schooling. After all, it is supposed to be what distinguishes us from animals. Universal and compulsory education systems were established towards the end of the 19th century. At that time psychologists were in the  process of establishing themselves as scientists, and psychology became the area of academic study which was called on to explain the processes of education. Psychologists offered advice, based on their own theories, on aspects of the testing, training and development of language. However, language and its structure, meaning, use, its settings and expression in both oral and visual forms have been studied more intensively by linguists of different kinds, and it is good to see reported in this issue investigations which draw on linguistic understanding.