Noting that conversation between adults and young children is a well-known stimulus to language development, but that conversation is seldom fully used in the classroom, this paper argues that conversations can and should be used more. It presents a range of research findings and classroom examples to support that argument. Chapter 1 examines the role of talk in the learning process and chapter 2 discusses Vygotsky's theory of sign operations and cognitive development. Chapter 3 explains Bruner's thesis of a Language Acquisition Support System. Examples of literacy activities in the classroom are presented in chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the role of teacher-child conversation in the development of writing skills in a study of children during their first formal year of schooling. Chapter 6 offers an example of how a young child uses spoken language to control such mental processes as attention and memory and uses these skills in the process of learning written language. The final chapter proposes that teachers develop a familiarity with their students that is tied to classroom activities and situations in order to encourage more productive types of talk in the educational setting. (TJQ)