Language acquisition is a contentious field of research occupied by cognitive and developmental psychologists, linguists, philosophers, and biologists. Perhaps the key component to understanding how language is mastered is explaining word acquisition. At twelve months, an infant learns new words slowly and laboriously but at twenty months he or she acquires an average of ten new words per day. How can we explain this phenomenal change? A theory of word acquisition will not only deepen our understanding of the nature of language but will provide real insight into the workings of the developing mind. In the latest entry in Oxford's Counterpoints series, Roberta Golinkoff and Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek will present competing word acquisition theories that have emerged in the past decade. Each theory will be presented by the pioneering researcher. Contributors will include Lois Bloom of Columbia University, Linda Smith of Indiana University, Amanda Woodward of the University ifChicago, Nameera Akhtar of the University of California,Santa Cruz and Michael Tomasello of the Max PlanckInstitute. The editors will provide introductory and summarychapters to help assess each theoretical model. RobertaGolinkoff has been the director of The Infant LanguageProject at the University of Delaware since 1974. For thepast decade she has collaborated with Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek ofTemple University to solve the question of languageacquisition in children.
