How Children Learn Language (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics) - Softcover

O'Grady, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521531926 ISBN 13: 9780521531924

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

'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 Language

Book Description

This engaging and accessible book explains the incredible mastery of language by young children, discussing how they learn to produce and distinguish among sounds, and their acquisition of words and meanings, and of the rules for building sentences. An invaluable resource for anyone wishing to discover how children acquire language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0521531926
• ISBN 13: 9780521531924
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 248