1. Dan’s Flirtations with Discourse (and Narrative) ---in his approach to language acquisition “Flirting with Discourse” Language Acquisition Task + Turn to Discourse ð as opening up space for future generations of language development research

2. The “language acquisition task” Learning to connect: –(a) references to objects + events of experience (CONTENT) –(b) how these objects + events are related to each other AND to the discourse perspectives of the speaker (RELATION) resulting in the acquisition of grammaticised notions A strong knowledge component –‘cracking the code’ (child as cognitive agent) –assistance in the form of child-directed discourse (e.g., ‘variation sets’ in mother-child discursive practices) Discourse as a ‘facilitating factor’ (“connective tissue”) to acquire linguistic knowledge

3. for instance “Temporality” In narrative discourse –refering to characters in time + space –connecting these (tense, aspect, modality) to each other –connecting them to the discursive perspective of the speaking subject Concepts of temporality (the language-specific ways of grammaticizing ‘time’) (and in cross- linguistic comparison)

4. however… Character, Time + Space are intrinsically and jointly ordered and inter-connected by the discursive perspective of the speaking subject –but what IS ‘the discursive perspective’ of the speaking subject? –a ‘cognitive’ orientation system OR something that is constantly negotiated and renegotiated in discourse - finding its way into ‘the child’s mind’ AND into ‘language structure’ (as ‘emerging’ and as ‘process’)? Turn from ‘the mind of the child’ to the ‘interpersonal communicative processes’ that shape languages in their peculiar ways of expressing and connecting content and relation

5. “flirting with discourse” Where was language acquisition in the sixties (70’s)? Space available for students of language development then and today? …so what is wrong with flirting?

6. Opening up space for next generations Temporality in discursive contexts (first in a more generaal ‘narrative context) (later in the context of different evaluative speaker-positions) Viewing language activities (in local contexts) as closer related to speaker positions - doing relational work between speakers and the establishment of speaker identities… Moving language development closer to identity development (and integrating language development theories into theories of human development)