基本説明
'Views about the nature of lnguage acquisition differ dramatically, and it is not easy for the unintitated non-specialist to gain a general overview of the field and the different views and perspectives held by various researchers in the field. Cattell's Children's Language; Consensus and Controversy meets this need and provides a welcome introduction to this very important field. It is well-writtten, cogent and easy to follow, and does an outstanding job of introducing some very complex topics in a readily understandable mannter. Highly recommended for general readers and undergraduate students.' - Choice.
Full Description
The popular notion of how children come to speak their first language is that their parents teach them words, then phrases, then sentences, then longer utterances. Although there is widespread agreement amongst linguists that this account is wrong, there is much less agreement as to how children really learn language. This revised edition of Ray Cattell's bestselling textbook aims to give readers the background necessary to form their own views on the debate, and includes accessible summaries of key thinkers, including Chomsky, Halliday, Karmiloff-Smith and Piaget.
Contents
1. Getting to rub two words together; 2. Catching fire; 3. Do we teach children to speak: Skinner and behaviourism; 4. Learning through touching and feeling: Jean Piaget; 5. What goes on in the mind?: Mentalism and Chomsky; 6. A close look at Chomsky's theories; 7. Do we help children to speak; 8. Learning how to mean: Halliday; 9. The two hemispheres of the brain - A; 10. The two hemispheres of the brain - B; 11. The bounds of language acquisition; 12. Animals and language; 13. Bootstrapping - A; 14. Bootstrapping - B; 15. The best of both worlds? Annette Karmiloff-Smith; 16. Conclusion Glossary.
