Research Methods in Child Language – A Practical Guide

This is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the methods researchers use to study child language, written by experienced scholars in the study of language development. * Presents a comprehensive survey of laboratory and naturalistic techniques used in the study of different domains of language, age ranges, and populations, and explains the questions addressed by each technique* Presents new research methods, such as the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the activity of the brain* Expands on more traditional research methods such as collection, transcription, and coding of speech samples that have been transformed by new hardware and software

Table of Contents:
List of Figures vii List of Plates viii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xv Preface xvi Part I Studying Infants and Others Using Nonverbal Methods 1 1 Habituation Procedures 3 Christopher T. Fennell 2 Intermodal Preferential Looking 17 Janina Piotroski and Letitia R. Naigles 3 The Looking-While-Listening Procedure 29 Daniel Swingley 4 Neuroimaging Methods 43 Ioulia Kovelman 5 Methods for Studying Language in Infants: Back to the Future 60 Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek Part II Assessing Language Knowledge and Processes in Children Who Talk 77 6 Assessing Phonological Knowledge 79 Cynthia Core 7 Assessing Vocabulary Skills 100 Barbara Alexander Pan 8 Assessing Grammatical Knowledge (with Special Reference to the Graded Grammaticality Judgment Paradigm) 113 Ben Ambridge 9 Assessing Children's Narratives 133 Elaine Reese, Alison Sparks, and Sebastian Suggate 10 Using Judgment Tasks to Study Language Knowledge 149 David A. McKercher and Vikram K. Jaswal 11 Using Priming Procedures with Children 162 Marina Vasilyeva, Heidi Waterfall, and Ligia Gomez 12 Studying Language Processing Using Eye Movements 177 John C. Trueswell Part III Capturing Children's Language Experience and Language Production 191 13 Recording, Transcribing, and Coding Interaction 193 Meredith L. Rowe 14 Studying Gesture 208 Erica A. Cartmill, Ozlem Ece Demir, and Susan Goldin-Meadow 15 Dense Sampling 226 Elena Lieven and Heike Behrens 16 Not Sampling, Getting It All 240 Letitia R. Naigles 17 Approaches to Studying Language in Preschool Classrooms 254 David K. Dickinson 18 Using the CHILDES Database 271 Roberta Corrigan Part IV Studying Multiple Languages and Special Populations 285 19 Crosslinguistic Research 287 Aylin C. Kuntay 20 Studying Children in Bilingual Environments 300 Erika Hoff and Rosario Luz Rumiche 21 Studying Children with Language Impairment 317 Karla K. McGregor 22 Studying the Language Development of Children with Intellectual Disabilities 330 Leonard Abbeduto, Sara T. Kover, and Andrea McDuffie Index 347

About the Author :
Erika Hoff is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. She is the author of Language Development, 4 th Edition (2009), and co-editor of The Blackwell Handbook of Language Development (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), and Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy Through School Age (2006).

Review :
"This book, though perhaps of limited use to individuals interested to learn more about a single method of research, since much of the book would therefore be irrelevant, will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable resource for an institution's library or for a lecturer or supervisor to provide for their students and researchers." ( Linguist , 2 July 2012)