Customer Reviews

Language Development (Sports Skills S.)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, let me say, this book is a textbook. If you are looking for a fun book to pick up and lose yourself in, this isn't it. But if you are looking for a book that will really help you understand how a young child, usually with no direct instruction, can go from being non-communicative at birth to being able to communicate in mostly correct and complete sentences by age four, this is for you.

I had to read this entire book, cover to cover, for a college class, and I did enjoy it. Yes, I was reading a textbook, but the material is interesting and the author puts in a LOT of real-life examples which really helped to keep me interested and engaged. I learn well through example, and every topic had one or more stories of experiments done on children or studies done on children to illustrate the concept being discussed. I loved this, as it really made the topics comprehensible and fascinating for me!

I also appreciated that the author presented multiple theories for everything. I'm not sure which theory Hoff subscribes to, because she presented a wide variety in a balanced way. I feel this gave me a fuller understanding of the field.

It did get dry at times. The author did go into detail on EVERYTHING. But that is because this is an introductory book covering a HUGE spectrum of information intended for those who have no background in it. So, for me, I needed that information. There was very little where I wished the author would just get on with it, in general if I got overwhelmed it was at the sheer amount of information contained in the pages.

This was, by far, my best text book this semester. It was accurate, it was interesting (for a textbook), and I feel like I have walked away with a lot of great information from reading it.

The text is well written and the subject is interesting but this author has chosen a style that is not the best for keeping a student's attention. Perhaps her next text could use fictitous families with a children that we could follow throughout her book, we would feel a little more connected.

Well I'm am 90% finished with this book for my upper division linguistics course, and I honestly have to say it is probably one of the most dull books I have ever read. I don't think the subject is that boring, but the book certainly is repetitious. Some of the words that are "highlighted" are self explanatory to the point where you really do not need them to be christened darker to make the student notice them. Furthermore, it goes into too much detail. Do we really need two full pages at 8pt font talking about the high amplitude sucking technique? This can be explained in one-non wordy sentence. I think that the arguments between the various theorists are amusing, but it gets way out of hand the more you read. Why not just have a big list at the end of the book, rather than spreading it out over 250 pages? Some of the sentences are rather long as well, and this makes it more dull. Students aren't so dumb that we need 18 word sentences to explain something.

Also its highly overpriced- the book is worth about probably what they are paying the author, my guess is somewhere around $40.00. Not $120.00 My college requires around 87 students to buy this book per semester. However, my teachers lectures cover all the information in this book in a much more concise way. I suggest using something else.

Also it focuses so much on first language acquisition it becomes annoying to those that find FIRST language acquisition NOT what they are interested in. This book pretty much overlooks L2 and L3 acquisition, and only devotes one meager chapter to it! Not all of us care about babies cooing and if it means something culturally or cognitively.

I wish I could just copy drB's review here-I realize that most purchasing this book have no choice in the matter, but in the probably unrealistic hope that perhaps a professor will stumble upon these reviews while selecting a book, I am adding another review. This book takes what is a very interesting subject matter and sucks anything that might possibly be interesting out of it and turns it into something overly complicated and dry. The book is dull and leaves me searching out other sources for examples to the points it brings up. A 20 minute reading assignment turns into an hour long project so that I feel I understand the material-it's just bad-I dread this class because of this book.

This text book is clearly written and covers its subject in detail. The bias of this book is that it considers actual experimentation by published studies to support its points. It is not a book that refers to the authority of past 'experts'.

It is current with contemporary issues.

Works well in courses (such as mine in Reed College, Portland, OR) that use current studies as the basis of curriculum. In other words, this book fills the gaps.

I'm so glad with this purchase. I got the book in great condition and fast. Thanks