Out of the Mouths Of Babes

The Acquisition of Language

Produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

• "An absorbing film-a clear descriptive approach to linguistics. It offers an excellent opportunity for clinical specialists to listen to normal speech." - Dr. Edward Mysak, Professor of Speech Pathology, Teachers College, Columbia University
• "... will interest parents and care- givers in public library audiences and will fascinate future and practicing educators..." - Booklist

Here is a rare opportunity to see and hear the chronology of language acquisition during the first six years of life. We see active youngsters talk and are able to note the gradual progression that occurs from random babbling, to jargon and one-word sentences, to the use of complicated structures and linguistic concepts.

The film emphasizes how children seem to learn language on their own, as part of their biological maturation, extracting the rules of grammar from the language they hear around them.

Peter and Jill de Villiers of Harvard University, researchers in language acquisition, provide a clear and informative description of linguistic development. Equally interesting are the carefully structured games and tests they devised for their research.

International ACLD Conference, 1984
National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1982
American Speech and Hearing Association, 1980

28 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Video rental $55.