This course compares and contrasts first and second language acquisition as well as examining similarities and differences in child and adult second language acquisition. The course will chart oral language development as well as the development of reading and writing for children acquiring English as another language. An overview of descriptive and applied linguistics as well as issues pertaining to psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics will be provided. The impact of culture on language development, dialect variation, language retention or language loss will be examined. Students may not take both READ 4361 and READ 4381 for credit. Cross-listed with BEEP 4381.