Zipf’s Laws of Meaning and Semanticity in Catalan Language Acquisition

Brain Mechanisms in Early Language Acquisition

Abstract: Early language acquisition is fundamental to a childs future academic success. The development of vocabulary and oral storytelling skills at a young age serves as a strong foundation for later achievements in overall literacy. Disparities in language abilities become apparent by kindergarten and tend to persist throughout a childs educational journey. Therefore, prioritizing early language development is crucial to ensuring that all children could reach their full potential. This literature review examines three effective interventions - the 3Ts Home Visiting Curriculum, Too Small to Fail, and the STELLA curriculum - designed to improve language acquisition and development in children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. It provides brief descriptions of each intervention, analyzes the underlying psychological principles of language acquisition and development, and considers the implications of these global approaches. Parental involvement is crucial in creating and sustaining the success of these programs. Future directions to enhance the effectiveness, accessibility, and inclusivity of language development interventions for targeted children are explored.

By presenting the theoretical framework and several examples of relevant studies regarding very early foreign language acquisition in the world and in Croatia, the aim of the paper is to raise awareness of the positive effects of learning English in pre-primary education. The theoretical background for early foreign language learning and acquisition is provided and complemented by descriptions of contemporary teaching methods which are based on play, environment, literature, and culture (as the key components). The paper further offers an overview of research, encompassing eight recent studies on early language acquisition in pre-primary education. The primary focus is on exploring the sample of participants, research methodology, and findings of these studies. The selection criteria for these studies are based on their relevance to the language learning domains outlined in the theory section. Through analysis, it becomes evident that researchers employ a combination of age-appropriate and child-friendly quantitative and qualitative methods. Although the studies may not support generalization due to small sample sizes, their results consistently demonstrate a positive impact of Total Physical Response (TPR), music, literature, integrated and project-based learning, as well as digitalization on vocabulary acquisition and the emergent literacy skills of pre-primary children.

Continuity, discontinuity, and atypicality in early language acquisition.

In 1877, Charles Darwin responded to an article by Taine in the journal Mind on early language acquisition by 'look[ing] over a diary' he had kept thirty-seven years before on his own son's development. The result, 'A Biographical Sketch of an Infant', was one of the first English infant psychology studies and a methodological innovation, being based on regular recordings of observations over a period of years. Darwin's article motivated others in England to carry out research on child development, an area that had previously received little attention in that country. The diary and related article reveal Darwin's reflections on child language acquisition as a key to understanding the mental development of the child, as well as the development of language in mankind, which was of vital importance to evolutionary theory. In The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin had argued that language is not an 'impossible barrier' between animals and man. He thought that infants between the ages of ten and twelve months were at the same stage of language development as dogs with their well-attested ability to understand certain words. The difference, he insisted, lay in man's 'infinitely larger power' of associating sounds and concepts — the result of the coevolution of language and mind. Darwin's expressed hope that others would follow his lead in the study of child development was swiftly realized in numerous publications that followed in the journal Mind and in the subsequent development of the study of childhood as an area for scientific research in Britain.

The paper discussed in detail the process of language development and the process of language acquisition in early childhood. It also gave a brief overview of the theoretical frame of reference of language development. The paper included an in depth explanation of the importance and impact of over-exposure for early second language acquisition and it answered the question of whether language learning could turn into a language acquisition after what Noam Chomsky referred to as the “critical period”. The paper concluded that even after the Chomskian critical period learners who got overexposed to the target language can acquire the language and it can be equivalent to their first language. The paper discussed two major kinds of motivations at play in the process of second language acquisition: (1) Curiosity: A desire to better understand a group of people and their way of life , and (2) Empathy: Upon repeated exposure, one might come to the conclusion that this group of people has a more sensible handle on things, and thus identifies with them.

The relationship between motor development and language skills has important implications for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of the present study was to analyze the acquisition of motor development and language in children with ASD. Guiding questions: Is the acquisition of language and motor development altered in children with ASD? What instruments are used to measure these aspects? Methods: A systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Searches were conducted in the PubMed (National Library of Medicine), Scopus and Web of Science databases using the following search terms: “Autism Spectrum Disorder” AND “Language” OR “Language Development” AND ¨Motor” OR “Motor Skills Disorders” in the period between April and June 2022. Results: A total of 1262 articles were retrieved from the electronic databases. After the discerning selection process, five articles were included in the present systematic review. Conclusion: The findings suggest that children with low motor development have a certain delay in the acquisition of language. The main instruments used for the assessment of these skills are the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2, Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales II and British Picture Vocabulary Scale III.

Zipfian frequency distributions facilitate word segmentation in context

IntroductionNoise exposure during pregnancy may affect a child’s auditory system, which may disturb fetal learning and language development. We examined the impact of occupational noise exposure during pregnancy on children’s language acquisition at the age of one.MethodsA cohort study was conducted among women working in the food industry, as kindergarten teachers, musicians, dental nurses, or pharmacists who had a child aged <1 year. The analyses covered 408 mother-child pairs. Language acquisition was measured using the Infant-Toddler Checklist. An occupational hygienist assessed noise exposure individually as no (N = 180), low (70–78 dB; N = 108) or moderate/high exposure (>79 dB; N = 120).ResultsAmong the boys, the adjusted mean differences in language acquisition scores were -0.4 (95% CI -2.5, 1.8) for low, and -0.7 (95% CI -2.9, 1.4) for moderate/high exposure compared to no exposure. Among the girls the respective scores were +0.1 (95% CI -2.2, 2.5) and -0.1 (95% CI -2.3, 2.2). Among the children of kindergarten teachers, who were mainly exposed to human noise, low or moderate exposure was associated with lower language acquisition scores. The adjusted mean differences were -3.8 (95% CI -7.2, -0.4) for low and -4.9 (95% CI -8.6, -1.2) for moderate exposure.ConclusionsIn general, we did not detect an association between maternal noise exposure and children’s language acquisition among one-year-old children. However, the children of kindergarten teachers exposed to human noise had lower language acquisition scores than the children of the non-exposed participants. These suggestive findings merit further investigation by level and type of exposure.

The present study investigated the teachers’ belief in early second language Acquisition. Participants were 20 teachers who taught in bilingual school in Serang, Indonesia. The survey was developed by the researcher based on studies on the early second language acquisition. The result showed that the majority of teachers had beliefs on language transfer and some cognitive effects in second language acquisition. However, the teachers showed the misconception on the belief of a critical period in second language acquisition. These findings provide the additional support to the need of developing the belief among the teachers in second language acquisition. Keywords: Teacher’s belief, Beliefs of Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition

The present study investigated the teachers’ belief in early second language Acquisition. Participants were 20 teachers who taught in bilingual school in Serang, Indonesia. The survey was developed by the researcher based on studies on the early second language acquisition. The result showed that the majority of teachers had beliefs on language transfer and some cognitive effects in second language acquisition. However, the teachers showed the misconception on the belief of a critical period in second language acquisition. These findings provide the additional support to the need of developing the belief among the teachers in second language acquisition. Keywords: <em>Teacher’s belief, Beliefs of Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition </em>

Responding to Joint Attention Across the 6- Through 24-Month Age Period and Early Language Acquisition

Objectives: This study investigated the phonological development of toddlers during early speech and language acquisition using a nonword repetition (NWR) task. It aimed to examine age-related changes in response patterns and phonological accuracy, as well as the relationship between phonological accuracy and expressive language ability. Methods: Fifty-four typically developing children aged 18 to 35 months were divided into three age groups. Each child was asked to repeat 15 nonwords. Responses were categorized into target responses, phonologically similar errors, lexical errors, babbling, and no response. Phonological accuracy was measured at the item, syllable, and phoneme levels. Expressive language scores were assessed using SELSI-Expressive language.Results: As age increased, the proportion of target responses increased, while lexical errors and no responses significantly decreased, and overall phonological accuracy improved. The accuracy of items and phonemes in nonword repetition was lower for nonwords with longer syllable lengths, particularly for those with three to four syllables. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between item accuracy for nonwords of two or more syllables and expressive language scores. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the nonword repetition task may be useful for assessing phonological processing and speech production abilities in toddlers during early language acquisition, with performance showing a significant association with expressive language development.

The aim of the article is to discuss the early language acquisition, which comprises the language acquisition period from the very beginning of the grammar system development to its complete formation. In the present research, the part of The Corpus of Lithuanian Children Language, which comprises transcribed and grammatically coded longitudinal language records of four singletons (two typically developing children, one typically developing early talker, and one typically developing late talker) and one heterozygous twin pair (a girl and a boy). The following hypotheses have been proposed: 1) the period of the grammar system formation of atypical language (twins’ language) is later and lasts longer than in the case of a typical language development; 2) children with atypical language development (twins) experience more language acquisition problems than children with typical language acquisition. The quantitative comparative research has confirmed the first hypothesis that the development of twins’ language is later and the formation of the grammar system lasts longer than in typical language development. The second hypothesis has been only partly confirmed: in the language of the twin girl, the tendencies of the grammar system acquisition correspond to the typical late talking, while in the language of the twin boy, the acquisition of the grammar system is slower and longer than in typically developing children. In addition, slower development of lexis related to the frequent use of onomatopoeias and twins’ secret language and uneven mean length of an utterance are typical of twins’ language.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.32.0.19640

The role of event knowledge in early language acquisition was investigated. Thirteen two-year-olds were observed interacting with their mothers over a five-week period. During weekly observational sessions, dyads interacted in both a familiar-event context and an unfamiliar-event context. Events were represented by complex toys (e.g. airport, marina, etc.). In the familiar-event, dyads interacted with the same event-toy during each observation period. In the unfamiliar-event, these same dyads interacted with a different novel toy during each observation period. The results indicated that children's increasing event knowledge facilitated their language development. Specifically, children's lexical type use, action verb use, and MLU increased in the familiar-event, but remained unchanged in the unfamiliar-event. Event knowledge also facilitated children's lexical token use. Results are discussed in terms of the role of event knowledge in language acquisition.