First and Second Language Acquisition: Parallels and Differences

Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics

by Jürgen M. Meisel

Infants and very young children develop almost miraculously the ability of speech, without apparent effort, without even being taught - as opposed to the teenager or the adult struggling without, it seems, ever being able to reach the same level of proficiency as five year olds in their first language. This useful textbook serves as a guide to different types of language acquisition: monolingual and bilingual first language development and child and adult second language acquisition. Unlike other books, it systematically compares first and second language acquisition, drawing on data from several languages. Research questions and findings from various subfields are helpfully summarized to show students how they are related and how they often complement each other. The essential guide to studying first and second language acquisition, it will be used on courses in linguistics, modern languages and developmental psychology.

Genres: Linguistics

320 pages, ebook

First published July 7, 2011

About the author

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen M. Meisel is a Professor of French, Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

He has researched into first and second language acquisition, multilingualism, and grammatical theory. Meisel is also one of the four chief editors of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Cambridge University Press.

Reviews

[Nayeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a nice companion to any language acquisition class, I can't imagine reading it without being able to discuss it with others (it's a textbook, after all). As the title says, it goes through the similarities and differences between the acquisition of a first and a second language. It's interesting for those of us doing research in the area.

It's important to note that the author gives a lot of examples using generative theories of syntax, including the more recent minimalist program, so being familiar with those might be necessary to fully understand some points. Also, he pushes his own hypothesis regarding L2 acquisition, namely a partial access to Universal Grammar (the Language Acquisition Device being subject to maturational changes, and the difference with it and the Language Making Capacity), the importance of inductive learning and the fact that L2 is an hybrid system, these are interesting ideas which I subscribe to but they are still hypothesis and should be treated as such.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in second language acquisition.

[Rick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made the mistake of ordering this textbook for my UNDERGRADUATE First and Second Language Acquisition class after reading the first chapter online. Oh, if only the rest of the book were written as well/clearly as the first chapter! I told my students to abandon the book after the third week of the summer session.