Language Development Over the Lifespan

Language Development Over the Lifespan is a reference resource for those conducting research on language development and the aging process, and a supplementary textbook for courses in applied linguistics/bilingualism programs that focus on language attrition/aging and adult literacy development in second languages. It offers an integrative approach to language development that examines changes in language over a lifetime, organized by different theoretical perspectives, which are presented by well-known international scholars.

Kees de Bot is Chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His research interests include foreign language attrition, language and dementia in multilingual settings, and more recently the application of Dynamic Systems Theory in SLA and multilingualism. He is coeditor of Second Language Acquisition: An Advanced Resource Book (2005) and has published widely in the field of Applied Linguistics.

Robert W. Schrauf is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. He conducts research in three main areas: bilingual autobiographical memory; language, culture, and cognitive aging; and applied linguistics and health sciences. He is president of the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology and associate editor of The Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology.