Browsing by Subject "language development"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Effects of first-language training on second-language word learning: Roles of conceptual and lexical knowledge
    (2015-05) Cole, Caitlin
    Previous research has shown that young children are able to learn words in a foreign language (e.g., Koenig & Woodward, 2012). Among children learning words in a foreign language, familiarity with objects (Sera et al., 2014) and L1 vocabulary (Koenig & Woodward, 2012) are related to foreign word learning. Among children learning words in their first language, knowledge of object functions is related to children's learning of and memory for object labels (Kemler Nelson et al., 2008; Booth, 2009; 2015), as well as object categorization and generalization (Graham et al., 2012; 2013; Twomey et al., 2014). In the present work, I examined the relative contributions of children's experience with novel objects, knowledge of object labels in their first language, and their knowledge of those objects' functions on their ability to learn foreign words for those objects and generalize those foreign words to other exemplars of the object categories. In Study 1, 52 monolingual English-speaking two- and three-year-old children were trained with novel objects on L1 labels or speaker preferences, or received no training. All three groups then learned Spanish labels for the novel objects. I measured children's initial learning of the foreign labels as well as their long-term retention. I found that children who had previous experience with the novel objects, whether or not they learned words in L1, learned and remembered foreign words better than children who had no experience with the objects. In study 2, 96 monolingual English-speaking two- and three-year-old children were trained with novel objects on L1 labels, object functions, or both, before learning foreign words for the objects. I measured children's learning of foreign words and their willingness to generalize those words across object categories. I found that children in all conditions learned foreign words, but did not generalize those words. Additionally, I found some evidence that learning English labels benefitted children's foreign word learning and generalization.
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    Exploring Early Childhood Language Environments: A Comparison of Language Exposure, Use and Interaction in the Home and Child Care Settings
    (2016-07) Larson, Anne
    The purpose of this study was to examine the home and child care language environments of young children (17 to 43 months of age) who are living in poverty. Participants included 38 children along with their primary caregivers and child care providers from 14 different classrooms across 5 child care centers. Each participant completed a standardized language assessment and two day-long recordings using Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) to determine the number of adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations that occurred in the home and during child care. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed significant differences in child language environment between settings with the home setting providing higher levels of language input and use. Results are discussed in terms of early childhood policy and practice for children who are at-risk of having language delays due to environmental factors.
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    Language Input and Outcomes in Bilingual Persian-English Children Attending an Immersion Preschool
    (2015-08) Payesteh, Bita
    Background: Despite the growing number of Persian-speaking people in the U.S., little is known regarding the language development of children learning Persian and English. Researchers studying Persian or Persian-English speakers typically only investigate one or two very specific areas of speech or language. However, there is no research examining how the amount of exposure to Persian and English and the amount of Persian and English spoken by children influences their language skills (e.g., vocabulary, morphosyntax). Method: Participants were two groups of preschool children, Persian-English bilingual (BI) children (n = 15) and English-only speaking (EO) children (n = 17); all children were 2 through 5 years of age. BI children attended a Persian immersion preschool in the San Francisco area and EO children attended English-only preschools in the Minneapolis area. BI participants completed a series of vocabulary and morphosyntax tasks in Persian and English; EO participants completed the same English series. Results: Results indicate a) no significant differences between the English scores of the BI and EO groups, b) significant differences in the BI group's English and Persian scores, c) significant cross-domain relationships within Persian and within English for the BI group, d) significant cross-linguistic relationships for Persian and English vocabulary and Persian and English morphosyntax, and e) notable trends that highlight the impact of the amount of parental language input and child language production on language skills. Conclusion: Across all the analyses, study results consistently suggest that greater heritage language support is beneficial for bilingual children and not detrimental to language development of the majority language, English.