Emergent verbal behavior in preschool children learning a second language

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Education

Background:

• Second-language acquisition in early childhood is a growing area of research.
• Understanding how specific language skills transfer is crucial for effective pedagogy.
• Previous research has explored various methods for teaching new languages to young learners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the emergence of untaught second-language skills.
• To determine if teaching listener and intraverbal responses in a second language facilitates spontaneous language use.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted intervention on second-language skill development in preschoolers.

Main Methods:

• Three preschool children participated in the study.
• Participants were taught first-language listener responses and second-language intraverbal responses.
• Intervention involved direct instruction in specific English and Welsh language tasks.

Main Results:

• All three participants showed an increase in untaught second-language tacts.
• Participants also demonstrated improvements in untaught second-language listener responses.
• The intervention successfully prompted the emergence of new second-language skills.

Conclusions:

• Directly teaching specific second-language skills can lead to the spontaneous development of other related language abilities.
• This suggests a potential for targeted interventions to enhance overall second-language acquisition in young children.
• The findings support the importance of focusing on foundational language components for broader skill development.