Children's real-time language processing and verb learning during interactions with caregivers

儿童在与照顾者互动过程中的实时语言处理和动词学习

• 批准号: 1748826
• 负责人: Sudha Arunachalam
• 金额: $ 30.11万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1748826&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Children; real; time; language; processing

Learning language is one of the most fundamental tasks children face in the first few years of life. Children who struggle with this task are at higher risk of experiencing difficulties in school, as well as challenges at work and in relationships with loved ones and in the community. A key factor in successful language learning is the richness of the language children hear from their caregivers. To understand why some children develop strong language skills and others do not, it is essential to understand how caregivers adapt their language to match their child's needs and abilities. This project will study how caregivers adapt their language when introducing new words to their children, and how this affects the way children learn the words. This project will also train students, teachers, and parents to better understand child language learning.The experiments in this project are based on a game that caregivers and children play together. The game allows researchers to test how quickly and how well children discover the meanings of new words. The children who participate in this research will be 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children acquiring English as their first language. The research team will measure children's language comprehension and language learning using state-of-the-art eye-tracking techniques. This technique involves showing children several pictures, one of which their caregiver describes using a word that is unfamiliar to the child, and then analyzing whether and how quickly children direct their gaze to the correct picture as it described. These data will reveal what features of caregiver speech best support children's language comprehension and learning of the unfamiliar word. Results of the research will be shared with other child language researchers and will also be used to create easy-to-use educational materials that will give parents and teachers strategies for supporting children in their language learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

学习语言是儿童在生命最初几年面临的最基本的任务之一。努力完成这项任务的儿童在学校遇到困难的风险更高，在工作中以及与亲人和社区的关系中也面临挑战。成功学习语言的一个关键因素是孩子们从他们的照顾者那里听到的丰富的语言。要了解为什么有些孩子发展了很强的语言技能，而另一些孩子没有，就必须了解照顾者如何调整他们的语言以适应孩子的需求和能力。该项目将研究看护者在向孩子介绍新单词时如何调整他们的语言，以及这如何影响孩子学习单词的方式。这个项目也将训练学生、教师和家长更好地理解儿童的语言学习。这个项目的实验是基于一个游戏，照顾者和孩子一起玩。这个游戏可以让研究人员测试孩子们发现新单词含义的速度和程度。参与这项研究的儿童将是2岁，3岁和4岁的儿童，他们将英语作为第一语言。研究小组将使用最先进的眼动追踪技术来测量儿童的语言理解和语言学习。这项技术包括向孩子们展示几张图片，其中一张图片的看护者使用孩子不熟悉的单词进行描述，然后分析孩子是否以及如何快速地将目光引导到正确的图片上。这些数据将揭示什么样的功能，照顾者的讲话最好的支持儿童的语言理解和学习的不熟悉的单词。研究结果将与其他儿童语言研究人员分享，并将用于制作易于使用的教育材料，为家长和教师提供支持儿童语言学习的策略。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Learning Verbs in English and Korean: The Roles of Word Order and Argument Drop

学习英语和韩语动词：词序和参数删除的作用

• DOI: 10.1080/15475441.2023.2165926
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Language Learning and Development
• 影响因子: 1.5
• 作者: Shi, Huanhuan;He, Angela Xiaoxue;Song, Hyun-Joo;Jin, Kyong-Sun;Arunachalam, Sudha
• 通讯作者: Arunachalam, Sudha

Three-year-olds' comprehension of contrastive and descriptive adjectives: Evidence for contrastive inference

三岁儿童对对比和描述性形容词的理解：对比推理的证据

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104707
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Cognition
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Davies, Catherine;Lingwood, Jamie;Ivanova, Bissera;Arunachalam, Sudha
• 通讯作者: Arunachalam, Sudha

Repetition Versus Variability in Verb Learning: Sometimes Less Is More

动词学习中的重复与变化：有时少即是多

• DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00091
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: and Hearing Research
• 作者: Horvath, Sabrina;Arunachalam, Sudha
• 通讯作者: Arunachalam, Sudha