Learning through Language
Towards an Educationally Informed Theory of Language Learning

Explores how children develop linguistic and literary competence from early childhood into adolescence, in a diverse range of linguistic contexts.

Vibeke Grøver (Edited by), Paola Uccelli (Edited by), Meredith Rowe (Edited by), Elena Lieven (Edited by)

9781107169357, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 May 2019

346 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.62 kg

'Highly recommended for practice-based researchers and classroom teachers to support instructional interventions in the multilingual classroom.' D. Pellegrino, Choice

Learning language and using language to learn is at the core of any educational activity. Bringing together a globally representative team of experts, this volume presents an innovative and empirically robust collection of studies that examine the role of language in education, with a particular emphasis on features of school-relevant language in middle childhood and adolescents, and its precursors in early childhood. It addresses issues such as how children's linguistic and literacy experiences at home prepare them for school, how the classroom functions as a language-mediated learning environment, and how schools can support language minority students in academic attainment. Set in three parts - Early Childhood, Middle Childhood and Adolescence and Learning in Multilingual Contexts - each part features a discussion from experts in the field to stimulate conversation and further routes for research. Its structure will make it useful for anyone interested in ongoing efforts towards building a pedagogically relevant theory of language learning.

1. Learning through language Vibeke Grøver, Paola Uccelli, Meredith L. Rowe and Elena Lieven
Part I. Learning through Language during the Preschool and Early Elementary School Years: 2. Input, interaction and learning in early language development Elena Lieven
3. Infants want input Paul L. Harris
4. Learning more than language through language during early childhood Meredith L. Rowe
5. Food for thought: turning everyday family practices into opportunities to develop rich language and literacy abilities in Latino children Diana Leyva and Lauren Skorb
6. Theory- and evidence-based language learning and teaching for young children: promoting interactive talk in the classroom Young-Suk Grace Kim and Joonmo Yun
7. The relationship between early childhood development and later elementary school performance in Chile Andrea Rolla, Macarena Alvarado, Bernardo Atuesta, Marcela Marzolo, Ernesto Treviño, Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Marycatherine Arbour
Discussion: reflections on learning through language from infancy to preschool and early elementary school years Ageliki Nicolopoulou
Part II. Learning through Language during the Middle School and Early Adolescent Years: 8. Learning the language for school literacy: research insights and a vision for a cross-linguistic research program Paola Uccelli
9. Observational research on vocabulary and comprehension in upper elementary school classrooms Rebecca D. Silverman and Anna M. Hartranft
10. Improving struggling readers' literacy skills through talk about text Lowry Hemphill, James Kim and Margaret Troyer
11. Classroom conversations as support for vocabulary learning: examining teacher talk as input for student learning Evelyn Ford-Connors and Catherine O'Connor
12. Measurement of reading comprehension processing and growth Gina Biancarosa
Discussion 1: time, complexity, and the enduring importance of words: key themes in language learning in the middle years P. David Pearson
Discussion 2: the road – via education – to humane social relationships is driven by language (and literacy) Robert L. Selman
Part III. Learning through More than One Language: 13. Young bilinguals' extended discourse skills: the role of perspective-taking Vibeke Grøver
14. How does vocabulary instruction during book reading help Chinese young minority children learn vocabulary in two languages? Si Chen
15. Young monolingual and bilingual children's exposure to academic language as related to language development and school achievement: the DASH-project Paul P. M. Leseman, Lotte F. Henrichs, Elma Blom and Josje Verhagen
16. Cross-linguistic relations among bilingual and biliterate learners C. Patrick Proctor and Qianqian Zhang-Wu
17. Pushing the limits: dual language proficiency and reading development in the US and Canada Yuuko Uchikoshi and Stefka H. Marinova-Todd
Discussion 1: bilingualism as action Sara Rutherford-Quach and Kenji Hakuta
Discussion 2: multilingualism and socioeconomic development Robert A. LeVine.

Subject Areas: Language acquisition [CFDC], Sociolinguistics [CFB]