Language Development

Essential study guides for the future linguist. Language Development is an introduction to how we learn to speak, read and write. It is suitable for advanced level students and beyond. Written with input from the Cambridge English Corpus, it considers the theoretical approaches to language development from early childhood to teenager. Language Development explores the lifelong process of learning a language, as well as the social factors that affect it. Using activities to help explain analysis methods, this book guides students through major modern issues and concepts. It summarises key concerns and modern findings, while providing inspiration for language investigations and non-examined assessments (NEAs) with research suggestions.

1. Learning to talk: 1.1. Stages of acquisition in young children; 1.2. Further development: grammar and phonology; 1.3. Discourse development; 2. Theories of spoken language acquisition: 2.1. An overview of theories behind spoken language acquisition; 2.2. Timeline of language acquisition; 2.3. The influence of environmental factors; 2.4. Child-directed speech and its characteristics; 3. Learning to read: 3.1. Books for young children; 3.2. Overlaps between spoken language and literacy acquisition; 3.3. Shared reading: its purposes and functions; 3.4. Reading development stages; 3.5. Understanding the conventions of written text; 3.6. Different methods of teaching reading; 3.7. Cues and miscues; 3.8. The primary national strategy; 4. Learning to write: 4.1. How do children learn to write?; 4.2. How do children learn to spell?; 4.3. How does grammar develop?; 4.4. Genre-based model of writing pedagogy; 4.5. Concerns over writing engagement and achievement; 4.6. Educational approaches to teaching writing; 5. Later Learning: 5.1. What is teen talk?; 5.2. Social media platforms; 5.3. Talk in the secondary education context; 5.4. The changing nature of reading as it develops and adapts; 5.5. Development of writing as young people mature; Ideas and answers; References.