Searching for a book for very new students of child language

[Barbara Z. Pearson]

Dear Ken,

I hope I'm still in the grace period of "shameless self-promotion" for my 
book that came out in April (and that in any case I was going to bring to 
the attention of InfoChildes in the next few days).  Raising a Bilingual 
Child: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents, by Zurer Pearson was recently 
released by Random House. 
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400023349 (It's 
only $15, and even less already on Amazon : ).

In it, I tried to accomplish the very goals you set forth:  a "highly 
readable translation of our best current understandings in the field," that 
covers first and second language acquisition and tailors its suggestions for 
parents in the framework of Fishman's guidelines for language 
revitalization. It is written for parents (and I hope childcare workers) and 
so the scholarly apparatus is at a minimum, but I have careful page-by-page 
notes of all my references available on my website: 
http://www.zurer.com/pearson/bilingualchild so someone who wants to can go 
further in depth on any of its topics.

I hope you will get hold of it and will give me your opinion of its 
suitability for your purpose.

For my other Infochildes colleagues--please get copies for all your friends 
and relations!  (And think of where we can place reviews of it.)

I might add for Ken that I think you will also enjoy reading Tom Roeper's 
book _The Prism of Grammar_.  I have tried to make sure that my descriptions 
of language and language acquisition are consistent with modern theories of 
grammar, but his book actually explains them (for first language 
acquisition), once again with parents in mind.

Good luck with what sounds like a fascinating assignment.

Best,
Barbara Pearson
***********************************************************
Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Project Coordinator
Depts of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
South College 226
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Amherst MA 01003

413-545-5023
fax: 545-2972

bpearson at research.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/aae/bp_indexold.htm
http://www.zurer.com/pearson

 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Reeder" <ken.reeder at ubc.ca>
To: "Info-CHILDES" <info-childes at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 5:08 PM
Subject: Searching for a book for very new students of child language


>
> I've been given a nice opportunity to develop a hybrid course at UBC
> at freshman or sophomore (1st/2nd yr) level entitled "Child Language
> Development." What is particularly interesting (for me at any rate) is
> that my students will be child care workers with minimal educational
> background, and that they are all working with aboriginal preschool
> children in British Columbia's southern interior. I'm searching for
> good introductory and short books in two (perhaps overlapping) areas:
> first language acquisition, and heritage language maintenance/
> bilingualism. While the latter will probably be handled by way of
> Multilingual Matters' fine materials, I'm still searching for just the
> right title in first language acquisition. I'd like it to be a highly
> readable translation of our best current understandings in the field
> and manageable for these students. A tall order? Any suggestions?
>
> Glad to summarize your responses here if this fine discussion tool
> doesn't already do so. Thanks, all.
> >
> 


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