Research Methods in Child Language: A Practical Guide

The underlying knowledge and mechanisms that enable language acquisition are hidden inside the mind of the child, and researchers depend on an array of tools to better understand children′s language skills and knowledge at different levels of development.

Research Methods in Child Language: A Practical Guide presents the diverse methods researchers utilize to study child language, providing clear explanations of the procedures used and the information that these methods yield.   Each chapter is written by researchers who have contributed to the development of the methods explored, and describes the obstacles encountered in refining these methods.  Presenting new research methods, such as the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the activity of the brain, and expanding on more traditional research methods such as collection, transcription, and coding of speech samples that have been transformed by new hardware and software, Research Methods in Child Language is an essential tool for all in the field of child language.

List of Figures vii

List of Plates viii

Notes on Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xv

Preface xvi

Part I Studying Infants and Others Using Nonverbal Methods 1

1 Habituation Procedures 3
Christopher T. Fennell

2 Intermodal Preferential Looking 17
Janina Piotroski and Letitia R. Naigles

3 The Looking–While–Listening Procedure 29
Daniel Swingley

4 Neuroimaging Methods 43
Ioulia Kovelman

5 Methods for Studying Language in Infants: Back to the Future 60
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathryn Hirsh–Pasek

Part II Assessing Language Knowledge and Processes in Children Who Talk 77

6 Assessing Phonological Knowledge 79
Cynthia Core

7 Assessing Vocabulary Skills 100
Barbara Alexander Pan

8 Assessing Grammatical Knowledge (with Special Reference to the Graded Grammaticality Judgment Paradigm) 113
Ben Ambridge

9 Assessing Children′s Narratives 133
Elaine Reese, Alison Sparks, and Sebastian Suggate

10 Using Judgment Tasks to Study Language Knowledge 149
David A. McKercher and Vikram K. Jaswal

11 Using Priming Procedures with Children 162
Marina Vasilyeva, Heidi Waterfall, and Ligia Gómez

12 Studying Language Processing Using Eye Movements 177
John C. Trueswell

Part III Capturing Children′s Language Experience and Language Production 191

13 Recording, Transcribing, and Coding Interaction 193
Meredith L. Rowe

14 Studying Gesture 208
Erica A. Cartmill, Özlem Ece Demir, and Susan Goldin–Meadow

15 Dense Sampling 226
Elena Lieven and Heike Behrens

16 Not Sampling, Getting It All 240
Letitia R. Naigles

17 Approaches to Studying Language in Preschool Classrooms 254
David K. Dickinson

18 Using the CHILDES Database 271
Roberta Corrigan

Part IV Studying Multiple Languages and Special Populations 285

19 Crosslinguistic Research 287
Aylin C. Küntay

20 Studying Children in Bilingual Environments 300
Erika Hoff and Rosario Luz Rumiche

21 Studying Children with Language Impairment 317
Karla K. McGregor

22 Studying the Language Development of Children with Intellectual Disabilities 330
Leonard Abbeduto, Sara T. Kover, and Andrea McDuffie

Index 347

Erika Hoff is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. She is the author of Language Development, 4th Edition (2009), and co–editor of The Blackwell Handbook of Language Development (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007), and Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy Through School Age (2006).

Furthermore, the information presented throughout the book will be of immense benefits to an institution s library or to a lecturer or supervisor to provide for their students and researchers.  Hence, Research Methods in Child Language is an essential tool for all in the field of child language.   (Infant & Child Development, 1 January 2014)

This book, though perhaps of limited use to individuals interested to learn more about a single method of research, since much of the book would therefore be irrelevant, will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable resource for an institution s library or for a lecturer or supervisor to provide for their
students and researchers.   (Linguist, 2 July 2012)