Child speech articulation development: Integrative and cross-language perspectives

目的： 我的研究项目是调查儿童言语清晰度行为的发展机制。基于我以前对儿童语音产生声学的研究，本研究计划的短期目标是：1）表征儿童舌头运动控制随时间推移和跨语言的潜在机制，这些机制支配儿童的语音清晰度发展，无论他们说什么语言，2）确定舌头运动控制，手动运动，语音感知，语言环境。长期目标是建立一个连贯和全面的语音习得理论，是进化的通知和生物学有效的。 科学方法： 为了实现这些目标，单语儿童讲英语，日语，或汉语普通话的语音生产将使用超声成像技术和声学测量检查。超声波技术提供了直接评估舌头的位置和姿势在发音过程中。儿童的舌面曲率将被跟踪，而他们从事的语音生产实验，样本的音素库存的母语。儿童的讲话也将同时录音进行声学分析，这提供了另一个舌头运动模式的指标。超声波和声学数据将随着时间的推移在一个人，跨个人和跨语言中进行比较，以获得共同的发展模式。除了发音测量，儿童的手部运动和灵巧性将进行评估，以证实口头和手动电机控制之间的联系。儿童感知语音声音区别的能力，然后将使用语音感知实验，利用眼动追踪技术进行测量。最后但并非最不重要的是，儿童和他们的父母将使用LENA（语言环境分析）设备进行记录，该设备可以在很长一段时间内自动分析儿童的家庭语言环境。 重要性： 语言是人类的决定性特征，但我们对儿童这种能力如何出现的理解是有限的。拟议的研究计划解决了一个关键的缺失的一块在破译这个难题，即，儿童的舌头运动控制的个体发育及其与语言特定的环境的相互作用。这项研究将阐明一般的语言进化理论，特别是语音理论，以及承担重大的科学和技术的影响。

Objectives: My research program investigates developmental mechanisms of child speech articulation behaviour. Building on my previous research on the acoustics of child speech production, the short term goals of this research program are to 1) characterize children's tongue motor control over time and across languages for the underlying mechanisms that govern speech articulation development in children regardless of the language they speak and to 2) identify the relationship between tongue motor control, manual movement, speech perception, and language environment. The long-term goal is to construct a coherent and comprehensive theory of speech acquisition that is evolutionarily informed and biologically valid. Scientific approach: To achieve these goals, speech production by monolingual children speaking English, Japanese, or Mandarin Chinese will be examined using ultrasound imaging technique and acoustic measurements. The ultrasound technique offers direct assessment on tongue position and posture during articulation processes. Children's tongue surface curvature will be traced while they are engaged in speech production experiments that sample the phoneme inventory of their native language. Children's speech will also be simultaneously audiorecorded for acoustic analysis, which provides another index of tongue movement pattern. Both the ultrasound and acoustic data will be compared over time within an individual, across individuals, and across languages for common developmental patterns. In addition to articulatory measurements, children's hand movement and dexterity will be evaluated to substantiate the link between oral and manual motor control. Children's ability to perceive speech sound distinctions will then be measured using speech perception experiments utilizing the eye-tracking techniques. Last but not least, children and their parents will be recorded using the LENA (Language Environment Analysis) device which affords automatic analysis of the child's home language environment over an extended period of time. Significance: Speech is the defining feature of humans, but our understanding of how this capacity emerges in children is limited. The proposed research program addresses a critical missing piece in deciphering this puzzle, namely, the ontogeny of children's tongue motor control and its interaction with language-specific environment. This research will illuminate evolutionary theory of language in general and of phonological theories in particular, as well as bear significant scientific and technological implications.