A cross-linguistic examination of young children’s everyday language experiences

BUNCE, J.; SODERSTROM, M.; BERGELSON, E.; ROSEMBERG C. R.; STEIN A.; ALAM F.; MIGDALEK M. J.; CASILLAS, M.

Journal of Child Language

Universidad Elma Blom de Utrecht, Países Bajos , y Universidad Melanie Soderstrom de Manitoba, Canadá.

Año: 2024 p. 1 - 29

0305-0009

We present an exploratory cross-linguistic analysis of the quantity of target-child-directed speech and adult-directed speech in North American English (US & Canadian), United Kingdom English, Argentinian Spanish, Tseltal (Tenejapa, Mayan), and Yélî Dnye (Rossel Island, Papuan), using annotations from 69 children aged 2–36 months. Using a novel methodological approach, our cross-linguistic and cross-cultural findings support prior work suggesting that target-childdirected speech quantities are stable across early development, while adult-directed speech decreases. A preponderance of speech from women was found to a similar degree across groups, with less target-child-directed speech from men and children in the North American samples than elsewhere. Consistently across groups, children also heard more adult-directed than target-childdirected speech. Finally, the numbers of talkers present in any given clip strongly impacted children’s moment-to-moment input quantities. These findings illustrate how the structure of home life impacts patterns of early language exposure across diverse developmental contexts.