Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistic Theory is a textbook, written for introductory courses in linguistic theory for undergraduate linguistics majors and first-year graduate students, by twelve major figures in the field, each bringing their expertise to one of the core areas of the field - morphology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology, and language acquisition. In each section the book is concerned with discussing the underlying principles common to all languages, showing how these are revealed in language acquisition and in the specific grammars of the world's languages.
The primary purpose of this book is to provide science teacher educators with exemplars of professional development programs designed to prepare school teachers to effectively help language learners in science classrooms simultaneously gain language proficiency and conceptual understanding. To this end, this book examines seventeen science teacher preparation programs that span a wide variety of grade levels (elementary, middle, and secondary), countries (Italy, Luxemburg, Spain, UK, and US), and linguistic contexts (English as a Second Language, English as a Foreign Language, trilingual classrooms, and teaching deaf children science through sign language).
As a usage-based language theory, cognitive linguistics is predestined to have an impact on applied research in such areas as language in society, ideology, language acquisition, language pedagogy. The present volumes are a first systematic attempt to carve out pathways from the links between language and cognition to the fields of language acquisition and language pedagogy and to deal with them in one coherent framework: applied cognitive linguistics.
Linking recent advances in theoretical syntax and empirical research in language development, the book claims that second language acquisition is not totally distinct from first language acquisition, but rather is a replay, a relearning of language. It argues that Universal Grammar is a template guiding acquisition of L1 while constraining acquisition of L2. Assuming that a syntactic distinction crucial for language and its acquisition is the division between lexical and functional categories, it argues that the key to L2 as well as L1 acquisition of syntax is the mastery of morphological features and their linking to functional categories.
This book provides a snapshot of the current state of research on bilingual acquisition and reflect the diversity of issues, methodologies, and language combinations that can be found in contemporary work in the field.
