Product Description
Erika Hoff's LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, 4th Edition communicates both the content and the excitement of this quickly evolving field. By presenting a balanced treatment that examines all sides of the issues, Hoff helps readers understand different theoretical points of view -- and the research processes that have lead theorists to their findings. After an overview and history of the field, Hoff thoroughly covers the biological bases of language development and the core topics of phonological, lexical, and syntactic development. She also provides in-depth discussions of the communicative foundations of language, the development of communicative competence, language development in special populations, childhood bilingualism, and language development in the school years.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 2 reviews)

Rather Dull Read,

Well I'm am 90% finished with this book for my upper division linguistics course, and I honestly have to say it is probably one of the most dull books I have ever read. I don't think the subject is that boring, but the book certainly is repetitious. Some of the words that are "highlighted" are self explanatory to the point where you really do not need them to be christened darker to make the student notice them. Furthermore, it goes into too much detail. Do we really need two full pages at 8pt font talking about the high amplitude sucking technique? This can be explained in one-non wordy sentence. I think that the arguments between the various theorists are amusing, but it gets way out of hand the more you read. Why not just have a big list at the end of the book, rather than spreading it out over 250 pages? Some of the sentences are rather long as well, and this makes it more dull. Students aren't so dumb that we need 18 word sentences to explain something.

Also its highly overpriced- the book is worth about probably what they are paying the author, my guess is somewhere around $40.00. Not $120.00 My college requires around 87 students to buy this book per semester. However, my teachers lectures cover all the information in this book in a much more concise way. I suggest using something else.

Also it focuses so much on first language acquisition it becomes annoying to those that find FIRST language acquisition NOT what they are interested in. This book pretty much overlooks L2 and L3 acquisition, and only devotes one meager chapter to it! Not all of us care about babies cooing and if it means something culturally or cognitively.
April 06, 2008

Thorough coverage of a controversial subject

This text book is clearly written and covers its subject in detail. The bias of this book is that it considers actual experimentation by published studies to support its points. It is not a book that refers to the authority of past 'experts'.

It is current with contemporary issues.

Works well in courses (such as mine in Reed College, Portland, OR) that use current studies as the basis of curriculum. In other words, this book fills the gaps.
March 10, 2007

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