An account of the development of research and thinking in the field of learner language. Draws on wide-ranging research into contrastive analysis, bilingualism, theoretical linguistics and experimental psychology.

The thrust of the book is not so much upon the formation of grammatical constructs but rather upon the shape of the grammatical system and its relation to semantics, discourse and pragmatics.

This book is an original study of the nature and place of pedagogic grammar in the teaching and learning of languages.