Early Ontogeny of Attunement to the Language Environment

描述(申请人提供)：随着婴儿获得周围语言， 它们变得与它的发音特性和它们的方式相协调 被用于语音功能的。这个项目的长期目标是 了解母语经验如何塑造语音 感知和生产。婴儿，谁可以获得任何人类语言， 成为环境中成人语言的母语者和听者？ 语言对成年人言语感知和产生的特定限制，以及 它们在婴儿中的出现，为我们研究这一过程提供了一个窗口 在对幼儿和成人语言特有影响的研究中。我们的第一次 具体目的是考察人们对环境语言的感知体验 为特定语言的音系学发展奠定基础。此前， 我们开发了一种关于母语音系限制的理论解释 对非母语语音信息的感知，称为知觉 同化模型(PAM)。PAM提供对婴儿和成年人的预测 对非本土对比的歧视，这是成年人从 几种语言环境以及婴儿知觉的发展 形成了非本土的对比。在下一个授权期，我们测试假设 非本土对比的知觉同化是由发音预测的 在比较美国英语、丹麦语、法语、意大利语和 韩国听众。我们研究了特定语言的神经基础 功能磁共振成像研究的知觉调谐。另外，我们对早期调谐的研究 被扩展到测试对非母语言语发音方面的感知 学龄前儿童和婴儿。第二个具体目标是描述 在生产中发展特定语言的趋势，特别是在 婴儿发声的语音特性。我们将调查范围扩大到 英语、法语和英语中的语音差异 下半年学习普通话的婴儿，测试关于以下方面的假设 语言专一性效应在婴儿的语言产出中的出现 辅音、元音和音节组织。我们还研究了两者之间的联系 婴幼儿言语模仿研究中的知觉与生产 非语言发音的发音手势。语音发展研究已经 早期干预对发育性言语和智力障碍的重要意义 语言缺陷。语音障碍占很大比例 言语治疗的案例很多。此外，研究还表明，语音受损 意识是儿童阅读障碍的主要原因。因此，知识 关于正常的语音发展可以提供对发展的洞察 阅读障碍。最后，这项研究与理解有关 第二语言学习，这是我们国家最重要的问题 越来越多的语言和多元文化的社会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As infants acquire the ambient language, they become attuned to its articulatory properties and to how they are harnessed for phonological functions. This project's long-term goal is to understand the way in which native language experience comes to shape speech perception and production. How do infants, who can acquire any human language, become native speaker-listeners of the ambient adult language? Language-specific constraints on adults' speech perception and production, and their emergence in infants, provide a window on this process, which we examine in studies of language-specific effects in young children and adults. Our first specific aim is to examine how perceptual experience with the ambient language lays the foundation for language-specific phonological development. Previously, we developed a theoretical account of native phonological constraints on perception of nonnative phonetic information, referred to as the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM). PAM offers predictions of infants' and adults' discrimination of nonnative contrasts, which have been upheld for adults from several language environments, as well as for development of infants' perception of nonnative contrasts. In the next grant period, we test the hypothesis that perceptual assimilation of nonnative contrasts is predicted by articulatory factors, in studies comparing American English, Danish, French, Italian, and Korean listeners. We investigate the neural basis of language-specific perceptual attunement with fMRI studies. Also, our research on early attunement is extended to test the perception of articulatory aspects of nonnative speech by preschoolers and infants. The second specific aim is to characterize development of language-specific tendencies in production specifically in the phonetic properties of infant vocalizations. We extend our investigation of phonetic differences in the babbling of English-, French-, and Mandarin-learning infants during the second half-year, testing hypotheses about the emergence of language-specific effects in infants' productions of consonants, vowels, and syllabic organization. We also examine the link between perception and production in studies on infant imitation of speech and nonspeech vocal articulatory gestures. Phonological development research has important implications for early intervention on developmental speech and language deficits. Phonological disorders constitute a large proportion of speech therapy caseloads. Also, research suggests impaired phonological awareness is a primary cause of reading deficits in children. Thus, knowledge about normal phonological development can provide insights into developmental reading disabilities. Finally, this research is relevant to understanding second language learning, an issue of fundamental importance in our increasingly multilingual and multicultural society.