Scott,

I don't have time to rummage on my shelf, but I can suggest a new book 
on a child's acquisition of the native language. It's "How Children 
Learn Language", by Wm. O'Grady, Cambridge U Press, 2005. It's compact 
and intended for the general reader. The last chapter addresses the 
question "How do they do it?", and does address to some extent learning 
in general.

There is lots of work on your other questions about second languages; I 
recommend a library or web search under "second language acquisition" 
and "bilingualism", and maybe other listers can help.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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