Page 11 - ELG1709 Agu-Sep Issue 450

RESEARCH NEWS .

By Claudia Civinni
contexts than parentese of native
Very young children acquire speakers – and babies pick up on
a foreign language faster with those differences.
trained native-speakers using In this study, this was also a way
‘parentese’ in a highly social of keeping all conditions equal
context, a study suggests. by exposing children to just one
The research, which promises variety of English . ‘It was only an
to spark outrage among non- initial exploration, and we wanted
nativists, is the latest in a serious to keep the study environment as
of studies looking at how small consistent as possible,’ Dr Ferjan
children learn by picking up the Ramirez explains. But how much
separate sounds of language. accent is too much for children at
The findings also raise hope this age? Dr Ferjan Ramirez says
that all infants, regardless of that further research is needed,
socioeconomic status, can but she always recommends that
acquire a language given the right parents speak to their children in
conditions. their native language. There are
‘Our study has direct studies, she explained, that show
implications for designing that speaking English to your
programmes for kids who need children even if you have an accent
to learn English’, co-author Naja does not benefit the child’s English
Ferjan Ramirez told the Gazette. development and also slows down
‘We are very excited from that the development of the other
perspective’. language. ‘We are not saying this is
For a period of eighteen weeks, Infant-directed speech helps the case for children who are seven
the study compared the progress language learning or eight years old. At that point
in Spanish and English of two you have a first language and you
groups of children (from 7 to 33 can use it to scaffold your second
months old) in an infant bilingual Native speaker language learning, but in this case
programme in Madrid, Spain. the learning process is different’.
The control group followed the However, she adds, ‘this study did
centre’s usual English language not test how crucial the use of
development programme, which tutors and native speech is. We can’t answer
included two hours of weekly that question because there were
instruction with a bilingual other factors at play, such as
teacher. The experimental group ‘parentese’ parentese, that were not equal
experienced hour-long daily between the two groups’.
sessions with a native speaker tutor, Another factor is social
where the focus was on developing key to infant interaction. In a previous study
a highly social and interactive by the same team, 9-month-old
learning context. Tutors involved babies were exposed to twelve
children in games and addressed foreign language sessions of Mandarin Chinese.
them using parentese, infant- One group was taught by a tutor,
directed speech with higher while the second group received
pitch and slower tempo. Tutors the same input through television
were undergraduates or recent Findings of the latest study of and the third through radio. After
graduates from the University of ‘phonemic learning’ in the under- the intervention, the babies in the
Washington who underwent a radio and television group were
two-week training period. threes could add fuel to the fire of just as good as the baseline group
By the end of the eighteen who didn’t receive any input. The
weeks, the intervention group other group could discriminate
scored significantly higher in both groups developed their first research showing that children Chinese sounds in the same way as
English. From a baseline of 12 language, Spanish, at the same at this age are very sensitive babies growing up in China.
English vocalisations recorded per rate. Re-tested eighteen weeks and detect the subtle phonetic But when does this ‘unique
hour for both groups, the control later, the experimental group still differences between native and window of opportunity for
group averaged at 13 after six retained their advantage. The non-native speakers.’ Learning a language learning’ close? ‘We don’t
weeks, while the experimental results showed this was entirely second language at this age, she have an answer’, said Dr Ferjan
group jumped to 74. The independent of the children’s explained, unfolds similarily to Ramirez. ‘The critical period
complexity of the language used by socio-economic background. the learning of your first language: for language learning is a well-
the children of the experimental When asked for the reason why it starts with individual sounds, known phenomenon and it has
group also increased: their phrases the study employed native- then it goes to syllables, then been studied for years. In terms
lengthened from 2.2 words to speaker tutors, Dr Ferjan Ramirez words. The study also reports that of learning about the sounds of
2.8, whereas the control group said: ‘We are looking at very young parentese from late bilinguals is language, it really is the very early
stayed at 2.2. In the meantime, children, and there is quite a bit of more inconsistent across phonetic infancy’.

10 October 2017