The Development of Metalinguistic Abilities in Children (Springer Series in Language and Communication Book 9)

"Not very many years ago, it was common for language researchers and theorists to argue that language development was somehow special and separate from other aspects of development. It was a period when the "1 ittle 1 inguist" view of language development was common, and much discussion was devoted to developƯ mental "linguistic universals," in contrast to more broadly defined cognitive universals. It seemed to me at the time (and still does) that such views reflected more their promulgators' ignorance of those aspects of cognitive development most likely to provide illuminating parallels with language development than they did the true developmental state of affairs. Coming from a neo-Piagetian frame of reference, it seemed to me that there were striking parallels beƯ tween the development of children's language comprehension abilities and the cognitive developmental changes occurring contemporaneously, largely during the period Piaget characterized as the preoperational stage. And, though more difficult to see even now, there appeared also to be developmentally earlier parallels during the sensory-motor stage"--Font no determinada Front Matter....Pages I-X Introduction....Pages 1-19 The Nature and Development of Metalinguistic Abilities....Pages 21-40 A Study of Children’s Metalinguistic Abilities: Method....Pages 41-59 A Study of Children’s Metalinguistic Abilities: Results and Discussion....Pages 61-96 Reflections on Reflecting on Language....Pages 97-108 Back Matter....Pages 109-119