In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • The development of language ed. by Jean Berko Gleason
  • Jan Holeš
The development of language. 5th edn. Ed. by Jean Berko Gleason. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000. Pp. 520. ISBN 0205316360. $80.20 (Hb).

This book is intended for anyone with an interest in how children acquire language and in how language develops over the life span. It is divided into eleven chapters, each written by an expert in the given area of research and dealing with a special topic from the field.

Ch. 1 (Jean Berko Gleason) is an overview of the course of language development from early infancy to old age, serving as a preview of the chapters that follow. It also contains an explanation of the biological foundations of language and a description of the major linguistic systems that the individual must acquire. It is interesting that the acquisition of communicative skills starts long before children say their first words. These early precursors of language that develop during the first year of life are described in Ch. 2 (Jacqueline Sachs). The following chapter (Lise Menn and Carol Stoel-Gammon) provides a framework for studying children’s growing ability to both recognize and produce the sounds of their language. Children’s first words, their relationship to meanings and referents, and the transformation of the early meaning systems into complex semantic networks are the subject matter of Ch. 4 (Barbara Alexander Pan and Jean Berko Gleason). Ch. 5 (Helen Tager-Flusberg) examines the acquisition of morphological and syntactic systems in the preschool years.

The same period of human life is analyzed in Ch. 6 (Judith Becker Bryant), but the emphasis here is on the variation of language in a multiplicity of social contexts and on its relation to the social setting, the topic of discourse, and characteristics of the person being addressed. Ch. 7 (John N. Bohannon and John D. Bonvillian) includes a discussion and an evaluation of various theoretical approaches to language acquisition (behavioral, linguistic, interactionist). Individual differences in the development of language and their implications for the study of its acquisition are the topic of Ch. 8 (Beverly A. Goldfield and Catherine E. Snow). Ch. 9 (Nan Bernstein Ratner) focuses on the atypical language development caused by various circumstances such as sensory problems, mental retardation, social disturbances, and so on. Ch. 10 (Richard Ely) analyzes the acquisition of language and the development of literacy skills during the school years and through adolescence. The last chapter (Loraine K. Obler) describes language development in adulthood and the later years.

There are many books on language development in children. One of the strong points of this book is the emphasis on the fact that language development is never complete and that it is a lifelong process. This book can be recommended as reading for courses in psycholinguistics, cognitive development, developmental psychology, speech pathology, and related subjects, and as a resource for professionals in all the above-mentioned fields. Every chapter contains a summary, exam questions, key words, and suggestions for classroom activities, as well as exhaustive references, making this book a valuable tool for any of the above courses. This is a very readable book, clearly written and accessible even to educated nonexperts.

Jan Holeš
Palackého University Czech Republic
...

pdf

Share