Bilingual First Language Acquisition (Paperback)

Annick De Houwer

ISBN 10: 184769148X / ISBN 13: 9781847691484

Published by Channel View Publications Ltd, Bristol, 2009

About this Item

Paperback. Increasingly, children grow up hearing two languages from birth. This comprehensive textbook explains how children learn to understand and speak those languages. It brings together both established knowledge and the latest findings about different areas of bilingual language development. It also includes new analyses of previously published materials. The book describes how bilingually raised children learn to understand and use sounds, words and sentences in two languages. A recurrent theme is the large degree of variation between bilingual children. This variation in how children develop bilingually reflects the variation in their language learning environments. Positive attitudes from the people in bilingual children's language learning environments and their recognition that child bilingualism is not monolingualism-times-two are the main ingredients ensuring that children grow up to be happy and expert speakers of two languages. This textbook explains how children learn to understand and speak two languages from birth. It brings together both established knowledge and the latest findings about different areas of bilingual language development in a perspective that emphasizes the role of children's language learning environments. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781847691484

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bilingual First Language Acquisition (Paperback)
• Publisher: Channel View Publications Ltd, Bristol
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184769148X
• ISBN 13: 9781847691484
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A comprehensive textbook on bilingual language acquisition.

Increasingly, children grow up hearing two languages from birth. This comprehensive textbook explains how children learn to understand and speak those languages.

It brings together both established knowledge and the latest findings about different areas of bilingual language development. It also includes new analyses of previously published materials. The book describes how bilingually raised children learn to understand and use sounds, words and sentences in two languages.

A recurrent theme is the large degree of variation between bilingual children. This variation in how children develop bilingually reflects the variation in their language learning environments. Positive attitudes from the people in bilingual children's language learning environments and their recognition that child bilingualism is not monolingualism-times-two are the main ingredients ensuring that children grow up to be happy and expert speakers of two languages.

About the Author

Annick De Houwer has recently been appointed as Chair of Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Erfurt in Germany. She is also the new Director of the Language Center there. In addition, Professor De Houwer holds the title of Collaborative Investigator to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.A.). Her PhD was based on a dissertation on bilingual acquisition, a topic she has since continued to work on steadily. Her book The Acquisition of Two Languages from Birth (CUP, 1990) is widely cited in the bilingual acquisition literature. Dr. De Houwer has also published on Dutch child language, attitudes towards child language, teen language, and intralingual subtitling. She has extensive editorial experience.