Child Language

Child Language
Author: Matthew Saxton
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2010-02-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1446241688

Electronic Inspection Copy available for instructors here Presented with the latest thinking and research on how children acquire their first language, the reader is taken from a standing start to the point where they can engage with key debates and current research in the field of child language. No background knowledge of linguistic theory is assumed and all specialist terms are introduced in clear, non-technical language. A theme running through the book is the nature-nurture debate, rekindled in the modern era by Noam Chomsky, with his belief that the child is born with a rich knowledge of language. This book is rare in its balanced presentation of evidence from both sides of the nature-nurture divide. The reader is encouraged to adopt a critical stance throughout and weigh up the evidence for themselves. Key features for the student include: boxes and exercises to foster an understanding of key concepts in language and linguistics; a glossary of key terms; suggestions for further reading; a list of useful websites at the end of each chapter; discussion points for use in class; and separate author and subject indexes.

Child Language

Child Language
Author: Barbara C. Lust
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2006-09-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139459279

The remarkable way in which young children acquire language has long fascinated linguists and developmental psychologists alike. Language is a skill that we have essentially mastered by the age of three, and with incredible ease and speed, despite the complexity of the task. This accessible textbook introduces the field of child language acquisition, exploring language development from birth. Setting out the key theoretical debates, it considers questions such as what characteristics of the human mind make it possible to acquire language; how far acquisition is biologically programmed and how far it is influenced by our environment; what makes second language learning (in adulthood) different from first language acquisition; and whether the specific stages in language development are universal across languages. Clear and comprehensive, it is set to become a key text for all courses in child language acquisition, within linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

Child Language

Child Language
Author: Jean Stilwell Peccei
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 127
Release: 1999
Genre: Children
ISBN: 0415198364

Child Language: is a comprehensive introduction to child language, introducing students to the key theories of language acquisition and teaching them skills for analyzing children's language covers the core areas of language acquisition: phonological, semantic, syntactic, morphological and discourse development, the bilingual child and language development in exceptional circumstances draws on a range of real texts and data provides classic readings by the key names in the discipline: J. Becker, Roger Brown, R. Ely, Jean Berko-Gleason, J.N. Jorgenson, D. Messer, S. Pinker, and N. Smith.

Handbook of Child Language Acquisition

Handbook of Child Language Acquisition
Author: William C. Ritchie
Publisher: Emerald Group Pub Limited
Total Pages: 740
Release: 1999
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780125890410

Sheds light on the what, why, and how of the child's ability to acquire one or more languages. This handbook includes treatments of acquisition from a variety of viewpoints, ranging from functionalist approaches and the implications of the creolization of languages for the study of acquisition, to the relevance of Chomsky's Minimalist Program.

Current Perspectives on Child Language Acquisition

Current Perspectives on Child Language Acquisition
Author: Caroline F. Rowland
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027261008

In recent years the field has seen an increasing realisation that the full complexity of language acquisition demands theories that (a) explain how children integrate information from multiple sources in the environment, (b) build linguistic representations at a number of different levels, and (c) learn how to combine these representations in order to communicate effectively. These new findings have stimulated new theoretical perspectives that are more centered on explaining learning as a complex dynamic interaction between the child and her environment. This book is the first attempt to bring some of these new perspectives together in one place. It is a collection of essays written by a group of researchers who all take an approach centered on child-environment interaction, and all of whom have been influenced by the work of Elena Lieven, to whom this collection is dedicated.

Playing with Languages

Playing with Languages
Author: Amy L. Paugh
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0857457616

Over several generations villagers of Dominica have been shifting from Patwa, an Afro-French creole, to English, the official language. Despite government efforts at Patwa revitalization and cultural heritage tourism, rural caregivers and teachers prohibit children from speaking Patwa in their presence. Drawing on detailed ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of video-recorded social interaction in naturalistic home, school, village and urban settings, the study explores this paradox and examines the role of children and their social worlds. It offers much-needed insights into the study of language socialization, language shift and Caribbean children’s agency and social lives, contributing to the burgeoning interdisciplinary study of children’s cultures. Further, it demonstrates the critical role played by children in the transmission and transformation of linguistic practices, which ultimately may determine the fate of a language.

Child Language Development

Child Language Development
Author: Sandra Bochner
Publisher: Wiley
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-04-21
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781861563798

This publication is concerned with the early stages of language acquisition and is designed for use by early childhood teachers, nursery nurses, special education teachers and others working with children experiencing difficulties in learning to talk. Procedures are described that can be used to assess a child' s current skills and plan activities to increase communicative competence. The programme described is based on a developmental sequence that moves the early skills of joint attention, turn-taking and appropriate play to the more complex skills of asking and answering questions. Other issues discussed include sound development and intelligibility, the use of augmentative and alternative communication as stepping stones to speech, working with children and with families. The second edition has an expanded focus on the place of communicative intentions in early language development.

Change and Language

Change and Language
Author: British Association for Applied Linguistics. Meeting
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853593598

This volume is a collection of papers from the Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) held at the University of Leeds, September 1994. It investigates the relationship between change and language in the broadest sense.

Perspectives on Language and Language Development

Perspectives on Language and Language Development
Author: Dorit Diskin Ravid
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2006-08-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1402079117

Perspectives on Language and Language Development brings together new perspectives on language, discourse and language development in 31 chapters by leading scholars from several countries with diverging backgrounds and disciplines. It is a comprehensive overview of language as a rich, multifaceted system, inspired by the lifework of Ruth A. Berman. Edited by Dorit Ravid and Hava Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, both from Tel Aviv University, Israel, the book offers state-of-the-art portrayals of linguistic and psycholinguistic phenomena with new insights on the interrelations of language structure, discourse theory, and the development of language and literacy. The volume presents innovative investigations on the interface of language and narrative in a broad range of languages, with a section devoted to linguistic studies of Modern Hebrew. It traces the development of language and literacy from early childhood through adolescence to maturity in spoken and written contexts, and in monolingual as well as multilingual perspectives. Linguists, psycholinguists, discourse scholars, cognitive psychologists, language teachers, education experts, and clinicians working in the field of language and discourse will find this book extremely useful both as a textbook and as a source of information.