How Children Learn Language
1st Edition
Published on 12. May 2005
978-0-511-07917-7 (ISBN)
Description
Adults tend to take language for granted - until they have to learn a new one. Then they realize how difficult it is to get the pronunciation right, to acquire the meaning of thousands of new words, and to learn how those words are put together to form sentences. Children, however, have mastered language before they can tie their shoes. In this engaging and accessible book, William O'Grady explains how this happens, discussing how children learn to produce and distinguish among sounds, their acquisition of words and meanings, and their mastery of the rules for building sentences. How Children Learn Language provides readers with a highly readable overview not only of the language acquisition process itself, but also of the ingenious experiments and techniques that researchers use to investigate his mysterious phenomenon. It will be of great interest to anyone - parent or student - wishing to find out how children acquire language.
Reviews / Votes
'The engaging style of the book, and its accessibility combined with its scientific rigour make this volume ideal for a lay audience and for introductory undergraduate courses to language acquisition.' The Journal of Child LanguageMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
36 Line drawings, unspecified
File size
4,28 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-511-07917-7 (9780511079177)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
William O'Grady
How Children Learn Language
Book
01/2005
Cambridge University Press
€55.71
Article exhausted; check for reprint
William O'Grady
How Children Learn Language
Book
01/2005
Cambridge University Press
€50.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
William O'Grady is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii.
Content
1. Small talk; 2. The great word hunt; 3. What's the meaning of this?; 4. Words all in a row; 5. What sentences mean; 6. Talking the talk; 7. How do they do it?; Appendix 1. Keeping a diary and making a tape of recordings; Appendix 2. The sounds of English.
