This book explores how schoolchildren and adolescents employ language in different communicative settings. The authors demonstrate how language development is affected by the language and culture in which it evolves, and use brain studies to provide a deeper explanation of developmental changes in language behavior.

"This unique book is a mini-handbook of human language. Throughout, the emphases are on language in use—narrative, argumentation, literacy, figurative language, and much more. Each chapter is a remarkable mini-course in which the reader will learn the essentials of linguistic structure, cognitive processes of speaking and understanding, sociocultural practices, neurobiology—and all in a developmental framework from infancy through adolescence. The authors are superbly suited to this feat of interdisciplinary mastery. Liliana Tolchinsky and Ruth Berman bring together the fruits of two careers of innovative research in several languages and societies." - Dan I. Slobin, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley

"A judicious synthesis of a crucial phase in language development, the transition from childhood to adulthood. Growing Into Language is clear, comprehensive, and an invaluable resource." - Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of The Language Instinct