Language learning different for bilingual children(36074)-英语教育-(98)-21英语网

本文作者： 21ST

　　儿童外语学习研究又有新进展。加拿大最新研究发现，在双语和单语家庭中成长的儿童学习语言时，前者注重语义联系，后者关注词语发音细节。

　　RESEARCH conducted at the University of British Columbia and the University of Ottawa, Canada, has found differences in how bilingual babies learned words compared to monolingual babies, the Science Daily reported. According to the research, babies brought up in bilingual homes learn languages by devoting their attention to general associations between words and objects for a longer period, whereas babies raised by monolingual families learn new words by focusing on detailed sound information.

　　Researchers conducted two experiments with 14, 17 and 20 month old babies raised in bilingual families. The first experiment involved a heterogeneous sample of babies who were exposed to English and another language, while the second experiment involved two homogeneous groups of bilingual infants exposed either to English and French or to English and Chinese. In both experiments, infants were repeatedly presented with a crown-shaped object that was called “bih”, and a molecule-shaped object called “dih”. It was then tested whether they were able to notice any change when names of the crown-shaped and molecule-shaped objects were swapped. Researchers found that bilingual infants failed to notice the minimal change in the object’s name until 20 months of age, whereas monolingual infants detected it at 17 months.

　　This later use of relevant language sounds to direct word learning is due to the increased demands of learning two languages, the researchers suggest. Indeed, previous research has shown that bilinguals and monolinguals achieve language-learning milestones at similar ages and have vocabularies of similar sizes when words from both languages are taken into account.

　　According to Christopher T. Fennell, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa, “the findings emerging from such studies will have practical implications for parents who are raising their children in a bilingual environment by revealing how young bilinguals acquire language”.

　　