Language Acquisition across Linguistic and Cognitive Systems

How and why do all children learn language? Why do some have difficulties while others are early language learners? What are the consequences of early bilingualism? Is it possible to reach native-like competence in a foreign language? Although we still cannot fully answer these questions, research during the last two decades has begun to solve some pieces of the puzzle. This book proposes an interdisciplinary collection of writings from some of the best specialists across several fields in cognitive science, offering a wide sample of recent advances in the study of first language acquisition, bilingualism, second language acquisition, and disorders of oral language. It is addressed to all researchers and students interested in language acquisition, as well as to teachers, clinicians and parents, who will find therein many new findings and varied methodological approaches, as well as challenging questions that are still debated and in need of further research.

Vera Kempe, University of Abertay, Dundee, in Studies in Second Language Acquisition 34(3): 523-524, 2012:
The editors of this volume should be commended for assembling such an impressive selection of contributions that are representative for breadth and diversity of contemporary language acquisition research. Despite this breadth and diversity, a coherent picture emerges of a rapidly expanding field of research that is gaining a deep and nuanced understanding of how neurophysiological, cognitive, and linguistic systems interact during language acquisition in various domains and contexts.