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Language acquisition: when does the learning begin?

Susan J Hespos1

  • 1Dept. of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2710, USA. hespos@northwestern.edu

Current Biology : CB
|August 24, 2007
PubMed
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By four months, babies can distinguish languages using word stress and visual cues from speech. This early language discrimination highlights sophisticated infant cognitive abilities.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Infant language acquisition begins early.
  • Babies demonstrate abilities to differentiate languages within the first few months of life.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the cues infants use for language discrimination.
  • To understand the sophistication of early language processing.

Main Methods:

  • Observational studies on infant responses to different languages.
  • Analysis of infant sensitivity to prosodic and visual speech features.

Main Results:

  • Four-month-old infants can discriminate between languages.
  • Prosodic elements, specifically word stress patterns, are key auditory cues.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Visual information from the speaker's face also aids discrimination.

    • Conclusions:

    • Infants possess sophisticated mechanisms for early language differentiation.
    • Both auditory (stress) and visual cues play crucial roles in language acquisition.
    • These findings underscore the multimodal nature of early language learning.