The book by Jean Berko Gleason and Nan Bernstein Ratner is one of the most significant works globally on the development of language in children, from early childhood to the later years of schooling, and has undergone repeated editions and revisions since its first publication in 2009.
This translation into Greek is based on its 9th revised English edition. The book consists of 11 chapters written by expert scientists in the field who research and teach relevant topics at universities in the USA and Australia. The chapters have been appropriately adapted for the Greek-speaking readership and contain real data as examples and exercises.
The chapters are accompanied by hyperlinks to a vast number of electronic sources that explain various topics through sound and images, allowing readers to explore the cutting edge of science. The book includes important and useful concepts and research findings with an emphasis on the linguistic development of children learning/acquiring different languages, whether as a first language (L1) or a second/foreign language (L2), among children with language disorders, as well as bilingual language development.
The book focuses on language acquisition from the first months of life, even before children begin to speak, to the achievement of adult language skills. Additionally, extensive discussions are presented on issues concerning the fundamental characteristics of language development from a historical and cross-cultural perspective.
This book can serve both as a textbook for undergraduate or graduate courses on language development or as a reference material for courses in psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, developmental psychology, speech pathology, education sciences, and related topics, and as a bibliographic resource for professionals in these fields.
No prior knowledge of linguistics is required for using this book, as each chapter presents the material along with an introduction to the necessary linguistic concepts, systematically reiterating important ideas to ensure comprehension by readers.
