First Language Acquisition [Paperback]

Eve V. Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009 | ISBN-10: 052173293X | ISBN-13: 978-0521732932 | Edition: 2nd

Babies are not born talking, they learn language, starting immediately from birth. How does this process take place? When do children master the skills needed for using language successfully? What stages do they go through as they learn to understand and talk? Do the languages they learn affect the way they think? This new edition of Eve Clark's highly successful textbook focuses on children's acquisition of a first language, the stages of development they go through, and how they use language as they learn. It reports on recent findings in each area covered, includes a completely new chapter on the acquisition of two languages and shows how speech to children differs by social class. Skilfully integrating actual data with coverage of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying language acquisition for those working in linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a valuable resource for students and researchers of language acquisition."
Language in Society

"...a very good book ... will certainly stimulate empirical investigations."
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

This new edition of Eve Clark's highly successful textbook focuses on children's acquisition of a first language. It reports on recent findings in each area covered, includes a completely new chapter on the acquisition of two languages and shows how speech to children differs by social class.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2nd edition (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052173293X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521732932
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable and precise, May 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: First Language Acquisition (Hardcover)

Clark is one of those few scholars who can present a complicated topic in a very accessible way. She touches on the most important and interesting areas of child language acquisition, citing others' studies as well as her own research. You don't need any previous knowledge of this field to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it!

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heavy on data, not so much on readability, July 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: First Language Acquisition (Paperback)

Although it was refreshing to read an account of language acquisition from the point of the view of Pragmatics, I felt the text was very dense and not organized well within the chapters. Dr. Clark includes information about many relevant experiments, but at times it was hard to distinguish her own interpretations from paraphrased citations. The chart dealing with phonetics also had quite a few errors.

I hope the second edition turns out to be better than this one!