This paper begins with a review of recent studies of the development of phonology, syntax, and semantics between the ages of five and twelve. Studies in pragmatics (or the functions of language) are also considered. The paper then turns from investigations of oral language acquisition to an examination of the interplay between oral and written language and to the development of metalinguistic awareness (language about language). Anecdotal observations of what children do with language are the basis of the next section of the review, which draws implications from (rather than for) teaching. Descriptions of teaching practices are used to illustrate child/adult language acquisition in the teaching/learning situation. The descriptions are personal explorations of ways teachers have helped facilitate child language acquisition and, in the process, have discovered new things about their own language. (AA)