Social environments shape children’s language experiences, strengthening language processing and building vocabulary
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Adriana Weisleder
Abstract
How does language experience influence the development of language skills known to be critical for academic success? In this chapter, we build on a long history of research examining sources of variability in children’s lexical development, and offer a new perspective that focuses on the development of efficiency in real-time language processing. Examining origins of individual differences in language proficiency, we review new research showing that the amount and quality of child-directed speech in infancy contributes to the development of language processing skills, which in turn facilitate vocabulary growth. These findings reveal that early language experience can have cascading effects for later learning and school success.
Abstract
How does language experience influence the development of language skills known to be critical for academic success? In this chapter, we build on a long history of research examining sources of variability in children’s lexical development, and offer a new perspective that focuses on the development of efficiency in real-time language processing. Examining origins of individual differences in language proficiency, we review new research showing that the amount and quality of child-directed speech in infancy contributes to the development of language processing skills, which in turn facilitate vocabulary growth. These findings reveal that early language experience can have cascading effects for later learning and school success.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- introduction Language acquisition in interaction 1
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Part 1. The social and interactional nature of language input (five papers)
- Conversational input to bilingual children 13
- Social environments shape children’s language experiences, strengthening language processing and building vocabulary 29
- The interactional context of language learning in Tzeltal 51
- Conversation and language acquisition 83
- Taking the floor on time 101
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Part 2. The role of paralinguistic information in language learning (three papers)
- Temporal synchrony in early multi-modal communication 117
- Shared attention, gaze and pointing gestures in hearing and deaf children 139
- How gesture helps children learn language 157
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Part 3. Pragmatic forces in language learning (six papers)
- Referential pacts in child language development 175
- “We call it as puppy” 191
- Learning words through probabilistic inferences about speakers’ communicative intentions 207
- Word order as a structural cue and word reordering as an interactional process in early language acquisition 231
- The discourse basis of the Korean copula construction in acquisition 251
- Emergent clause-combining in adult-child interactional contexts 281
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Part 4. Interactional effects on language structure and use (three papers)
- Analytic and holistic processing in the development of constructions 303
- From speech with others to speech for self 315
- How to talk with children 333
- Index 353
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- introduction Language acquisition in interaction 1
-
Part 1. The social and interactional nature of language input (five papers)
- Conversational input to bilingual children 13
- Social environments shape children’s language experiences, strengthening language processing and building vocabulary 29
- The interactional context of language learning in Tzeltal 51
- Conversation and language acquisition 83
- Taking the floor on time 101
-
Part 2. The role of paralinguistic information in language learning (three papers)
- Temporal synchrony in early multi-modal communication 117
- Shared attention, gaze and pointing gestures in hearing and deaf children 139
- How gesture helps children learn language 157
-
Part 3. Pragmatic forces in language learning (six papers)
- Referential pacts in child language development 175
- “We call it as puppy” 191
- Learning words through probabilistic inferences about speakers’ communicative intentions 207
- Word order as a structural cue and word reordering as an interactional process in early language acquisition 231
- The discourse basis of the Korean copula construction in acquisition 251
- Emergent clause-combining in adult-child interactional contexts 281
-
Part 4. Interactional effects on language structure and use (three papers)
- Analytic and holistic processing in the development of constructions 303
- From speech with others to speech for self 315
- How to talk with children 333
- Index 353
