A peek into language acquisition: Under the scientific microscope
Imagine you are flipping through TV channels and stop on one in a language you do not know. It can be very hard to pick out words or figure out the meaning. However, what you might notice is a distinct melody. You may notice that…
Some kids may hear Japanese at home and English at school. Other kids may hear one of their caregiver’s speak Spanish and the other French. Bilingual children grow up learning two languages, but how much they hear or speak each language can vary greatly. Typically,…
The back and forth between speakers is one of the foundations of language. When one person speaks, soon after another person responds. It would be uncommon if a friend responded 5 minutes after you said something to them. It would also be surprising if that…
Children can use all their senses to help them learn language. Touch for example is a sense that children rely on from their very first days, while their other senses like sight and hearing are still developing. Touch can help children learn words. Some of…
When we meet a baby, we may make more exaggerated gestures than we may when talking to an adult. Can these modifications, be they small or big, actually make language learning easier? One way that our movements and gestures can help a baby learn language…
When we think of literacy, the first thoughts that come to mind might be the shapes of letters or characters or the hand movements used to write those letters or characters (see Do we need to teach handwriting these days?). There is, however, more to…
Children learn language from quality interactions. These valuable moments for language learning can arise from interactions with primary caregivers or a number of other people a child meets. Time spent with educators at nursery schools or playing with siblings at home can increase the amount…
Even very early in life, a child may hear or see language from many different people. They may go to nursery school or kindergarten and interact with educators or fellow peers. They may spend time with grandparents. They may have older siblings who play with…
At first glance, codeswitching can appear to be a difficult way to learn languages. Instead of learning each language neatly, in isolation, children have to make sense of two languages intertwined. This may be just an impression however. Codeswitching can help a child strengthen skills…
Caregivers who speak two (or more) languages may use a mix of languages in some conversations. Switching between languages is, pretty straightforwardly, called ‘Codeswitching’. Codeswitching can be used between sentences, where one sentence is in one language, and the next in another language. For example,…