Variation in quality of maternal input and development of coda stops in English-speaking children in Singapore.

Jasper Hong Sim,Brechtje Post

doi:10.1017/s0305000921000593

Abstract

This study examines the effects of input quality on early phonological acquisition by investigating whether interadult variation in specific phonetic properties in the input is reflected in the production of their children. We analysed the English coda stop release patterns in the spontaneous speech of fourteen mothers and compared them with the spontaneous production of their preschool children. The analysis revealed a very strong positive input-production relationship; mothers who released coda stops to a lesser degree also had children who tended to not release their stops, and the same was true for mothers who released their stops to a higher degree. The findings suggest that young children are sensitive to acoustic properties that are subphonemic, and these properties are also reflected in their production, showing the importance of considering input quality when investigating child production.

Highlights

Individual variation in early language development and language outcomes of both monolingual and bilingual children may be attributed to differences in input quantity and quality
In the best-fitting model that performed significantly better than an intercept-only baseline model (χ2(3) = 227, p < .001, marginal R2 = .29, conditional R2 = .47), the three main effects were significant predictors; PV+PP stops were more likely to be released than pre-consonantal stops (PC) stops, B = 2.41, OR = 11.12, p < .001, 95% CI [7.41, 16.69], and velar stops were more likely to be released than alveolar stops, B = 0.88, OR = 2.42, p < .001, 95% CI [1.52, 3.85]
The three hypotheses set out earlier predicted that while children as a group would exhibit adult-like patterns with regard to the distribution of realisations of coda stops, there would be individual variation in the frequency of stop release in the children that could be attributed to variation that would be observed in their mothers

Summary

Introduction

Individual variation in early language development and language outcomes of both monolingual and bilingual children may be attributed to differences in input quantity and quality. Caregivers who speak a majority language and a heritage language, for example, may speak the native language with non-nativelike phonetic characteristics, and depending on their L2 use and length of residence outside of their L1 community, phonetic properties of both languages may be qualitatively different from others (e.g., Fish, García-Sierra, Ramírez-Esparza & Kuhl, 2017; Flege, Frieda & Nozawa, 1997; Guion, Flege & Loftin, 2000; Mayr & Montanari, 2015; Post & Jones, 2020) Even when both languages are acquired early, bilingual caregivers may differ in their language dominance, and so does the extent of cross-linguistic interactions, which affects production and perception (e.g., Amengual, 2018; Amengual & Chamorro, 2015). The present study focuses on this underexplored area of child phonological acquisition by examining whether interadult variation is reflected in the production of their children

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Conclusion