Overview

Language acquisition is a human endeavor par excellence. As children, all human beings learn to understand and speak at least one language: their mother tongue. It is a process that seems to take place without any obvious effort. Most people, however, know more than one language. Children may have become bilingual in early childhood; adults may have become more or less fluent in a second language, either by using it in everyday communication or by formal instruction in the classroom. The study of child language acquisition explores how the human mind construes the preliminary linguistic systems from input which is only partially processed. It investigates how these preliminary systems are restructured when new and more fully processed input has to be accommodated. The study of second language acquisition, be it in a natural or a formal setting, examines how the mind acquires more than one language. Second language learners have the advantage of a mature cognitive system and of their knowledge of what languages may comprise. This knowledge, however, can also be a hindrance when it interferes with learning another linguistic system. As with children learning their mother tongue, linguistic input and feed-back are necessary prerequisites. However, the kind of linguistic input that is relevant and the way in which feed-back is provided may differ. All forms of language acquisition are determined by the human faculty of language processing. This inborn capacity allows linguistic knowledge to be stored and made accessible. The acquisition of one or more languages follows from various properties of human cognition and language processing. Hence, language acquisition can be studied in various contexts. The purpose of this series is to compile a collection of high-quality monographs on language acquisition. The series serves the needs of eve

Full Product Details

9781282345409

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available