Language Learning: A Lifelong Process

Language Learning provides an introduction to language development that differs from existing books in that it traces language and cognitive development (together with the associated debates) from babyhood, through the school years of middle childhood and adolescence, into adulthood and the world of work. Increasingly, the global trend is towards learning to speak, read and write more than one language. Language Learning is a comprehensive book that includes descriptions and discussions of learning more than one language sequentially and simulataneously. The only book to look at language with a lifelong perspective, it is ideal as an introductory student text. Each chapter contains ideas and suggestions for students to follow-up and begin their own small scale investigations into language development.

Table of Contents:
List of figures List of tables Transcription conventions 1 What is language 1.1 Phonemes or sounds 1.2 Learning the phonemes of English 1.3 Learning words - the lexicon 1.4 Learning the grammar or syntax 1.5 Learning to read and write 1.6 Pragmatics 1.7 Summary 2 What we know about language learning 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Baby talk 2.3 Longitudinal studies of children learning language 2.4 Language development and physical factors 2.5 Language and cognition: Jean Piaget (1896-1980) 2.6 Language inside the head 2.7 Noam Chumsky 2.8 Chomsky on Chomsky 2.9 Summary 2.10 Further reading 3 Learning to communicate 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The development of pragmatic and communicative competence 3.3 Schema theory 3.4 Frame theory 3.5 Script theory 3.6 Vygotsky's zone of proximal development 3.8 Summary 3.9 Further reading 4 A social view of language learning 4.1 A socially situated view of language 4.2 The Hallidayan description of language as socio-semiotic 4.3 Halliday's description of Nigel learning how to mean 4.4 Painter's description of language as a resource for learning 4.5 Halliday's description of learning how to mean 4.6 Summary 5 Learning how to 'get things done' in the first two years of life 5.1 The beginnings 5.2 Trevarthen's primary intersubjectivity 5.3 Secondary intersubjectivity 5.4 Protolanguage 5.5 Into the mother tongue 5.6 Moving towards an adult linguistic system 5.7 Bilingualism and multilingualism 5.8 Summary 5.9 Further reading 6 Language as a resource for learning 6.1 Language and thinking 6.2 Children and construct knowledge 6.3 Development cannot be separated from its social context 6.4 Learning can lead development 6.5 Language plays a central role in cognitive development 6.6 Language development and learning strategies 6.7 Taking a closer look at what children say and do with language 6.8 The child leaning language in a multilingual environment 6.9 Summary 6.10 Further reading 7 Language development in the school 7.1 The transition from commonsense knowledge to educational knowledge 7.2 Classroom talk 7.3 Oral genes 7.4 Summary 7.5 Further reading 8 Developing language through writing 8.1 Components of the structure of written texts 8.2 Genre 8.3 Core-genre in the development of educational knowledge 8.4 Changing features of writing on entering secondary school 8.5 Summary 8.6 Further reading 9 Critical language awareness 9.1 Contextualization 9.2 Meta-level awareness 9.3 Taking a closer look at text types 9.4 What young readers might not know 9.5 Summary 9.6 Further reading 10 Multiliteracies 10.1 Television 10.2 Magazines 10.3 Summary 10.4 Further reading 11 Learning language(s): creating a linguistic biography 11.1 Aspects of a person's linguistic repertoire 11.2 Contexts and the creation of linguistic biography 11.3 An ecological desciption of language development 11.4 Context(s) and language development 11.5 Characteristics of a linguistic biography 11.6 Language development within an ecolinguistic framework 11.7 Summary 11.8 Further reading References Index

About the Author :
Joseph Foley is Professor in the Specialists Department, Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), Regional Language Centre (RELC), Singapore. Linda Thompson is Professor of Education at the University of Manchester and Director of the Language and Literacy Studies Research and Teaching Group.