A peek into language acquisition: Under the scientific microscope
Caregivers can feel a lot of pressure to give their child a head start learning language, or any skill. With a whole market dedicated to ‘the earliest educational experiences’, it can seem enticing to start even before a baby is born: in the womb. That…
At first glance, it can seem that one of the biggest challenges for learning language is figuring out what each word means. For example, learning that ‘dog’ means any furry animal that barks. We often overlook the challenge of first figuring out that when someone…
Languages can be learned at any age: from a nanny, on an exchange in undergrad, after a work promotion to an international office, in a seniors activity class. Caregivers and educators can feel pressure to introduce a second language from a very young age. We…
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…