TY - JOUR
T1 - Word learning in infant-and adult-directed speech
AU - Ma, Weiyi
AU - Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick
AU - Houston, Derek M.
AU - Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - Infant-directed speech (IDS), compared with adult-directed speech (ADS), is characterized by a slower rate, a higher fundamental frequency, greater pitch variations, longer pauses, repetitive into-national structures, and shorter sentences. Despite studies on the properties of IDS, there is no direct demonstration of its effects for word learning in infants. This study examined whether 21- and 27-month-old children learned novel words better in IDS than in ADS. Two major findings emerged. First, 21-month-olds reliably learned words only in the IDS condition, although children with relatively larger vocabulary than their peers learned in the ADS condition as well. Second, 27-month-olds reliably learned the words in the ADS condition. These results support the implicitly held assumption that IDS does in fact facilitate word mapping at the start of lexical acquisition and that its influence wanes as language development proceeds.
AB - Infant-directed speech (IDS), compared with adult-directed speech (ADS), is characterized by a slower rate, a higher fundamental frequency, greater pitch variations, longer pauses, repetitive into-national structures, and shorter sentences. Despite studies on the properties of IDS, there is no direct demonstration of its effects for word learning in infants. This study examined whether 21- and 27-month-old children learned novel words better in IDS than in ADS. Two major findings emerged. First, 21-month-olds reliably learned words only in the IDS condition, although children with relatively larger vocabulary than their peers learned in the ADS condition as well. Second, 27-month-olds reliably learned the words in the ADS condition. These results support the implicitly held assumption that IDS does in fact facilitate word mapping at the start of lexical acquisition and that its influence wanes as language development proceeds.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79960552256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15475441.2011.579839
DO - 10.1080/15475441.2011.579839
M3 - Article
C2 - 29129970
AN - SCOPUS:79960552256
SN - 1547-5441
VL - 7
SP - 185
EP - 201
JO - Language Learning and Development
JF - Language Learning and Development
IS - 3
ER -