Plural Publishing Introduction to Language Development

Introduction to Language Development is a textbook designed for use in undergraduate language acquisition courses. The primary components of language development (morphology, phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, literacy development, and multicultural and multilinguistic differences) are presented in an uncomplicated manner, along with examples that illustrate children's speech and language behaviors. The proposed book describes the typical speech and language development of preschool-, early school-, and later school-aged children. The goal of this text is to provide students with knowledge of typical speech and language development. To further students' understanding of the material, each chapter begins with chapter objectives to focus students' attention on the main points in that chapter. Typical developmental norms are presented in tables and figures, such as the norms for morphological and phonological acquisition. This text also offers study questions at the end of every chapter to ensure that students understand the material in that chapter. Information is presented in a succinct and uncomplicated manner, appropriate for undergraduate students. Information is also be geared to prepare them for later classes that require knowledge of typical language acquisition, such as the courses dealing with speech and language disorders. The text also addresses the problem that many existing texts contain limited information on multicultural and multilinguistic language differences. This information is essential as approximately 10.8% (over 5.3 million) of school-age children in the United States are English language learners (National Clearinghouse for English language acquisition, 2011). In addition, literacy is poorly represented in most current texts, a topic that of national concern for both native-English language speaking and English language learning children.