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Infant-directed speech facilitates lexical learning in adults hearing Chinese: Implications for language acquisition
Abstract
Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of infant-directed (ID) speech on adults' ability to learn an individual target word in sentences in an unfamiliar, non-Western language (Chinese). English-speaking adults heard pairs of sentences read by a female, native Chinese speaker in either ID or adult-directed (AD) speech. The pairs of sentences described slides of 10 common objects. The Chinese name for the object (the target word) was placed in an utterance-final position in experiment 1 (n = 61) and in a medial position in experiment 2 (n = 79). At test, each Chinese target word was presented in isolation in AD speech in a recognition task. Only subjects who heard ID speech with the target word in utterance-final position demonstrated learning of the target words. The results support assertions that ID speech, which tends to put target words in sentence-final position, may assist infants in segmenting and remembering portions of the linguistic stream. In experiment 3 (n = 23), subjects judged whether each of the ID and AD speech samples prepared for experiments 1 and 2 were directed to an adult or to an infant. Judgements were above chance for two types of sentence: ID speech with the target word in the final position and AD speech with the target word in a medial position. In addition to indirectly confirming the results of experiments 1 and 2, these findings suggest that at least some of the prosodic features which comprise ID speech in Chinese and English must overlap.
... For the present study, we chose to use the same IDS stimuli in order to directly compare our results to previous studies, which were aimed at testing word learning in infants versus adults. We also chose IDS stimuli because many previous studies have shown that IDS facilitates word learning in infants learning their native language [41,42] and adult second language learners [43][44][45][46]. ...
... As mentioned in the Methods, participants heard pseudo words produced in infant-directed speech (IDS), which is a speech style often used by mothers and caregivers when speaking to babies and infants and contains more variable pitch relative to adult-directed speech (ADS) [41]. Although many studies have shown that IDS can be beneficial for word learning in infants [42,44] and adults [41,45,46,72], IDS might negatively impact word learning for listeners who have heighted attention to pitch variation, such as tonal language speakers for whom pitch variations signify different lexical items [73]. ...
... According to the L2LP proposal, this scenario results in listeners' perception of contrasts that do not exist in the L2 [12] and is referred to as a SUBSET problem [11,74]. When L2 sounds are a subset of what the learner can actually hear, there is no overt information from the target L2 that would allow the learner to stop hearing the extra category or stop activating irrelevant or spurious lexical items [11,22,46,74] resulting in higher lexical competition and overall less efficient L2 lexicalization and recognition. It is likely that MCA plays a role in the overall lower performance of Mandarin speakers in this study, specifically due to the use of IDS for the stimuli tokens. ...
Adults commonly struggle with perceiving and recognizing the sounds and words of a second language (L2), especially when the L2 sounds do not have a counterpart in the learner’s first language (L1). We examined how L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers learned pseudo English words within a cross-situational word learning (CSWL) task previously presented to monolingual English and bilingual Mandarin-English speakers. CSWL is ambiguous because participants are not provided with direct mappings of words and object referents. Rather, learners discern word-object correspondences through tracking multiple co-occurrences across learning trials. The monolinguals and bilinguals tested in previous studies showed lower performance for pseudo words that formed vowel minimal pairs (e.g., /dit/-/dɪt/) than pseudo word which formed consonant minimal pairs (e.g., /bɔn/-/pɔn/) or non-minimal pairs which differed in all segments (e.g., /bɔn/-/dit/). In contrast, L1 Mandarin L2 English listeners struggled to learn all word pairs. We explain this seemingly contradicting finding by considering the multiplicity of acoustic cues in the stimuli presented to all participant groups. Stimuli were produced in infant-directed-speech (IDS) in order to compare performance by children and adults and because previous research had shown that IDS enhances L1 and L2 acquisition. We propose that the suprasegmental pitch variation in the vowels typical of IDS stimuli might be perceived as lexical tone distinctions for tonal language speakers who cannot fully inhibit their L1 activation, resulting in high lexical competition and diminished learning during an ambiguous word learning task. Our results are in line with the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model which proposes that fine-grained acoustic information from multiple sources and the ability to switch between language modes affects non-native phonetic and lexical development.
... Few experiments have tested the efficacy of clear speech registers for word learning in adults. For instance 22,23 , found that Chinese Infant Directed Speech (IDS) helps non-native adult participants to learn words. IDS shares various acoustic features (including vowel hyperarticulation 8 ) and proposed didactic function with NNDS, although these registers are intended for different addressees. ...
This study assessed whether Non-native Directed Speech (NNDS) facilitates second language (L2) learning, specifically L2 word learning and production. Spanish participants (N = 50) learned novel English words, presented either in NNDS or Native-Directed Speech (NDS), in two tasks: Recognition and Production. Recognition involved matching novel objects to their labels produced in NNDS or NDS. Production required participants to pronounce these objects’ labels. The novel words contained English vowel contrasts, which approximated Spanish vowel categories more (/i-ɪ/) or less (/ʌ-æ/). Participants in the NNDS group exhibited faster recognition of novel words, improved learning, and produced the /i-ɪ/ contrast with greater distinctiveness in comparison to the NDS group. Participants’ ability to discriminate the target vowel contrasts was also assessed before and after the tasks, with no improvement detected in the two groups. These findings support the didactic assumption of NNDS, indicating the relevance of the phonetic adaptations in this register for successful L2 acquisition.
... Part of the preference for IDS could be because infants tend to prefer affiliative behaviors, and IDS may be associated with that (Geraci et al., 2022). The use of IDS can also assist in the segmentation of words from fluent speech (Golinkoff and Alioto, 1995;Kuhl, 2004;Thiessen et al., 2005). Facilitating word segmentation is especially important during the first year of life, as detecting regularities from the linguistic environment is a first step in understanding and ultimately producing meaningful units in their native language (Saffran, 2001). ...
Introduction
Infant-directed speech (IDS) refers to how people in many societies talk with young children. Compared to speech directed to an adult (ADS), IDS includes a slower rate, fewer words per utterance, higher-than-average pitch, and elongated vowels. Although many benefits are associated with using IDS, there is little information on what parents think about IDS. The current study asked: (1) How do mothers conceptualize IDS; (2) Is there an alignment between mothers' IDS beliefs and their speech register when teaching a new word to their child; and (3) How do mothers' IDS beliefs associate with children's expressive language and performance on a word learning task?
Methods
Fifty-three mothers and their 15- to 21-month-old monolingual English-reared infants ( M age = 17.92, SD = 1.99, 23 males) participated. Mothers were asked to teach their child a novel word and to complete the Parent Language Belief Questionnaire (PLBQ). Mothers' IDS was recorded as they taught their child a novel word and was compared to their ADS from interacting with the experimenter.
Results
Findings revealed that mothers had mixed beliefs about their use of IDS. Yet, most mothers used IDS as they taught their child a novel word. Lastly, mothers' IDS beliefs did not predict children's language skills or word learning at test.
Discussion
The current study is the first to explore whether mothers' beliefs about their use of infant-directed speech align with their actual use of IDS. As the positive benefits between IDS and children's language development have been documented, identifying the barriers surrounding why parents may not use IDS with their children is essential.
... Few experiments have tested the e cacy of clear speech registers for word learning in adults. For instance, (Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995;Ma et al., 2020) found that Chinese Infant Directed Speech (IDS) helps non-native adult participants to learn words. IDS shares various acoustic features (including vowel hyperarticulation, Uther et al., 2007) and proposed didactic function with NNDS, although these registers are intended for different addressees. ...
This study assessed whether Non-native Directed Speech (NNDS) facilitates second language (L2) learning, specifically L2 word learning and production. Spanish participants (N=50) learned novel English words, presented either in NNDS or Native-Directed Speech (NDS), in two tasks: Recognition and Production. Recognition involved matching novel objects to their labels produced in NNDS or NDS. Production required participants to pronounce these objects’ labels. The novel words contained English vowel contrasts, which approximated Spanish vowel categories more (/ɪ-i/) or less (/æ-ɛ/). Participants assigned to the NNDS group recognized novel words faster and learned and pronounced the /ɪ-i/ contrast words better compared to participants in the NDS group. Participants’ ability to discriminate the target vowel contrasts was also assessed before and after the tasks, with no improvement detected in the two groups. These findings support the didactic assumption of NNDS, indicating the relevance of the phonetic adaptations in this register for successful L2 acquisition.
... Such speech is characterized by a variety of intonational and prosodic characteristics, including heightened pitch, broader pitch range, lengthened vowels, longer pauses, shorter utterances, and exaggerated intonation contours (e.g., Fernald et al., 1989;Papoušek, Papoušek, & Symmes, 1991;Albin & Echols, 1996;Ratner, 1986;Stern, Spieker, & MacKain, 1982, see Golinkoff, Can, Soderstrom, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2015 for review). These features have the effect of holding infants' attention (ManyBabies Consortium, 2020), highlighting boundaries between word units (Nelson, Hirsh-Pasek, Jusczyk, & Cassidy, 1989;Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995), and facilitating language acquisition (see Spinelli, Fasolo, & Mesman, 2017 for review). Such infant-directed speech is used by not only mothers but also most adults (and even older children) in many cultures (Barton & Tomasello, 1994;Fernald et al., 1989;Kitamura, Thanavishuth, Burnham, & Luksaneeyanawin, 2001;Papoušek et al., 1991). ...
In many cultures, adults use simple, slow, and dynamic speech when talking to infants ("parentese," or infant-directed speech) and make expansive, repetitive movements when demonstrating object properties to infants ("motionese," or infant-directed actions). These modifications enhance infants' attention to and learning about language and goal-directed actions. Adults' interactions with infants are also full of emotions—do adults also modify their emotional expressions when interacting with in-fants? Here we showed parents of infants (aged 7 to 14 months; N = 25) emotion-evoking pictures including colorful bubbles, adorable stuffed animals, yummy snacks, broken toys, dangerous fire, and rotten fruits. We asked parents to describe their feelings about these pictures either to their infant or to an adult partner (i.e., an experimenter). While the parents' use of emotion words did not differ between conditions, their emotional expressions did: Their infant-directed emotional expressions were more positive when they discussed positive pictures and more negative when they discussed negative pictures compared to their adult-directed emotional expressions. These findings suggest that besides "parentese" and "motionese," there is also a unique form of emotional communication in parent-child interaction—"emotionese."
... One type of speech register that naturally increases auditory salience is the speech that mothers and other caregivers use when talking to babies, also known as infantdirected speech (IDS). IDS naturally contains higher and more variable pitch, is perceived to be more salient than adult-directed speech (Kuhl et al., 1997;Zangl & Mills, 2007), and facilitates word learning in infants as well as adults (Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995). Prior CSWL studies have used auditory stimuli recorded in IDS, resulting in successful novel word learning in children and adults (Escudero et al., , 2016a(Escudero et al., , 2016bMulak et al., 2019). ...
Research has shown that novel words can be learned through the mechanism of statistical or cross‐situational word learning (CSWL). So far, CSWL studies using adult populations have focused on the presentation of spoken words. However, words can also be learned through their written form. This study compared auditory and orthographic presentations of novel words with different degrees of phonological overlap using CSWL in a laboratory‐based and an online‐based approach. In our analyses, we first compared accuracy across modalities, with our findings showing more accurate recognition performance for CSWL when novel words were presented through their written forms (orthographic condition) rather than through their spoken forms (auditory condition). Bayesian modeling suggested that accuracy for the orthographic condition was higher in the laboratory compared to online, whereas performance in the auditory condition was similar across both experiments. We discuss the implications of our findings for presentation modality and the benefits of our online testing protocol for future research. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in non‐technical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org
... Current usage-based theories and sociocognitive accounts of language acquisition emphasize the role of exposure to spoken language in adult-child interactions and view it as the platform on which language develops (e.g., Dąbrowska & Lieven, 2005;Pine & Martindale, 1996;Pine & Lieven, 1997;Reynolds et al., 2019;Snow, 1995;Theakston et al., 2002;Tomasello, 1992). During adult-child interactions, adults tend to use a special and simplified way of speaking termed child-directed speech (CDS; Fernald, 1992;Gleitman et al., 1984;Golinkoff & Alioto, 1995;Thiessen et al., 2005). CDS is characterized by language with a simple and short sentence structure as well as repeated lexical items and utterances (e.g., Tal & Arnon, 2018). ...
Purpose
Differences between child-directed speech (CDS) by women and men are generally explained by either biological-evolutionary or gender-social theories. It is difficult to tease these two explanations apart for different-sex–parent families because women are usually also the main caregivers. Thus, this study aims to examine the influence of parental sex on CDS by investigating men and women who are in same-sex–parent families.
Method
Twenty same-sex–parent families participated in the study—10 families in which the parents were two men and 10 families in which the parents were two women. The families were matched for toddler age (range: 9–24 months) and sex. CDS was recorded using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) device for 16 hr during a day. Each parent was also audio-recorded during a 30-min play session with his or her child.
Results
No difference was found between men and women across all the LENA measures, namely, adult word count, conversational turns count, and child vocalization count. The analysis of speech samples during parent–child play showed no difference between men and women in mean length of utterance and number of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Pragmatic speech acts of initiations, responses to infants' actions, or vocalizations were similar in both sexes. Women used more “teaching” utterances than men, and men who were main caregivers used more “teaching” utterances than men who were secondary caregivers. Across both sexes, secondary caregivers used more “requests for actions” compared to main caregivers.
Conclusions
The present findings support a functional–social approach and not a biological approach for explaining the use of CDS by men and women. These findings have clinical implications on the involvement of men in early intervention programs.
... Such facilitative effects of IDS prosody may not be limited to child language acquisition. Golinkoff and Alioto (1995) found that English-speaking adults learned Chinese words better when these words were produced in IDS-like speech (exaggerated in prosody) and were placed in utterance-final position, suggesting that properties of IDS (including prosody and word order) may continue to promote second language learning in adults. Recent evidence suggests that adult native English speakers learn Chinese target words better when they are presented in IDS-like speech (Ma, Fiveash, Margulis, Behrend, & Thompson, 2020). ...
This study examines (1) whether infant-directed speech (IDS) facilitates children’s word learning compared to adult-directed speech (ADS); and (2) the link between the prosody of IDS in word-learning contexts and children’s word learning from ADS and IDS. Twenty-four Dutch mother-child dyads participated when children were 18 and 24 months old. We collect mothers’ ADS and IDS at both ages and test children’s word learning from ADS and IDS at 24 months. We find that Dutch 24-month-old children could reliably learn novel words from both ADS and IDS, and IDS had a facilitative effect. In addition, children’s word learning from IDS (but not ADS) is predicted by IDS pitch range when mothers introduce unfamiliar words to children at 18 months. Our findings contribute to an understanding of the role of IDS prosody in language development, highlighting both individual differences and contextual differences in IDS prosody.
This study examined putative benefits of testing and production for learning new languages. Undergraduates ( N = 156) were exposed to Turkish spoken dialogues under varying learning conditions (retrieval practice, comprehension, verbal repetition) in a computer‐assisted language learning session. Participants completed pre‐ and posttests of number‐ and case‐marking comprehension, a vocabulary test, and an explicit awareness questionnaire. Controlling for nonverbal ability and pretest scores, the retrieval‐practice group performed highest overall. For number/case marking, the comprehension and retrieval‐practice groups outperformed the verbal‐repetition group, suggesting benefits of either recognition‐ or recall‐based testing. For vocabulary, the verbal‐repetition and retrieval‐practice groups outperformed the comprehension group, indicating benefits of overt production. Case marking was easier to learn than number marking, suggesting advantages for learning word‐final inflections. Explicit awareness correlated with comprehension accuracy, yet some participants demonstrated above‐chance comprehension without showing awareness. Findings indicate the value of incorporating both practice tests and overt production in language pedagogy.
Purpose
This scoping review considers the acoustic features of a clear speech register directed to nonnative listeners known as foreigner-directed speech (FDS). We identify vowel hyperarticulation and low speech rate as the most representative acoustic features of FDS; other features, including wide pitch range and high intensity, are still under debate. We also discuss factors that may influence the outcomes and characteristics of FDS. We start by examining accommodation theories, outlining the reasons why FDS is likely to serve a didactic function by helping listeners acquire a second language (L2). We examine how this speech register adapts to listeners' identities and linguistic needs, suggesting that FDS also takes listeners' L2 proficiency into account. To confirm the didactic function of FDS, we compare it to other clear speech registers, specifically infant-directed speech and Lombard speech.
Conclusions
Our review reveals that research has not yet established whether FDS succeeds as a didactic tool that supports L2 acquisition. Moreover, a complex set of factors determines specific realizations of FDS, which need further exploration. We conclude by summarizing open questions and indicating directions and recommendations for future research.
The prosodic features of maternal speech addressed to 2-month-old infants were measured quantitatively in a tonal language, Mandarin Chinese, to determine whether the features are similar to those observed in nontonal languages such as English and German. Speech samples were recorded when 8 Mandarin-speaking mothers addressed an adult and their own infants. Eight prosodic features were measured by computer: fundamental frequency (pitch), frequency range per sample, frequency range per phrase, phrase duration, pause duration, number of phrases per sample, number of syllables per phrase, and the proportion of phrase time as opposed to pause time per sample. Results showed that fundamental frequency was significantly higher and exhibited a larger range over the entire sample as well as a larger range per phrase in infant-directed as opposed to adult-directed speech. Durational analyses indicated significantly shorter utterances and longer pauses in infant-directed speech. Significantly fewer phrases per sample, fewer syllables per phrase, and less phrase-time per sample occurred in infant-directed speech. This pattern of results for Mandarin motherese is similar to that reported in other languages and suggests that motherese may exhibit universal prosodic features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined patterns of preboundary lengthening in mother–child speech by analyzing the speech of 9 women engaged in recorded play sessions with their 9–13 mo old daughters over a 6-mo period. It was found that maternal speech to children on the verge of expressive language ability was characterized by a statistically significant increase in the degree of preboundary lengthening normally expected in conversational speech. Observable but nonsignificant preboundary lengthening was observed in maternal speech to children using 1-word utterances and to children using combinatorial language. It is suggested that maternal speech exaggerates a salient cue to the identification of major syntactic units in conversational speech. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies investigated adults' use of prosodic emphasis to mark focused words in speech to infants and adults. In Exp 1, 18 mothers told a story to a 14-mo-old infant and to an adult, using a picture book in which 6 target items were the focus of attention. Prosodic emphasis was measured both acoustically and subjectively. In speech to infants, mothers consistently positioned focused words on exaggerated pitch peaks in utterance-final position, whereas in speech to adults prosodic emphasis was more variable. In Exp 2, 12 women taught another adult an assembly procedure involving familiar and novel terminology. In both studies, stressed words in adult-directed speech rarely coincided with pitch peaks. However, in infant-directed speech, mothers regularly used pitch prominence to convey primary stress. The use of exaggerated pitch peaks at the ends of utterances to mark focused words may facilitate speech processing for the infant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Mothers were recorded as they informally sang a song of their choice, once to their infant and once in the infant's absence. Paired excerpts from different mothers were then presented to adult listeners, who were required to identify the infant-directed song in each pair. In Experiment 1, with singers and listeners of North American origin, infant-directed excerpts were identified with a high level of accuracy. Mothers in Experiment 2, all of Indian descent, sang Hindi songs in both contexts. Listeners of Indian and North American origin identified the infant-directed excerpts significantly better than chance, with women outperforming men and native Hindi speakers outperforming native English speakers. These findings document a distinctive style of singing to infants, some aspects of which are recognizable across cultures and musical systems. Cross-cultural differences in singing style and the relations between infantdirected song and speech are discussed.
In this report we ask how mother-infant interaction affects the rate of early language acquisition. Mothers and 15-month-old infants were videotaped playing at home. Coders described (a) infants' attention to people and/or objects, (b) mothers' use of literal and conventional acts to direct infants' attention and (c) functions of mothers' utterances. Taken together, these aspects of mother-infant play predicted 40% of the variance in infants' vocabulary size at 18 months. Significant unique contributions to this prediction were made by mothers' conven tional object-marking and metalingual use of language. The more mothers highlighted both (a) shared objects using conventional means, and (b) the linguistic code, the greater the variety of words their infants used at 18 months of age.
Segmentation of continuous speech into its component words is a nontrivial task for listeners. Previous work has suggested that listeners develop heuristic segmentation procedures based on experience with the structure of their language; for English, the heuristic is that strong syllables (containing full vowels) are most likely to be the initial syllables of lexical words, whereas weak syllables (containing central, or reduced, vowels) are nonword-initial, or, if word-initial, are grammatical words. This hypothesis is here tested against natural and laboratory-induced missegmentations of continuous speech. Precisely the expected pattern is found: listeners erroneously insert boundaries before strong syllables but delete them before weak syllables; boundaries inserted before strong syllables produce lexical words, while boundaries inserted before weak syllables produce grammatical words.
In three experiments, subjects heard alternate versions of naturally spoken sentences that allowed two prosodic realizations (They are FRYING chickens vs They are frying CHICKENS). In Experiment 1, a paraphrase choice task showed that interpretations reliably depended on the prosody used. In Experiment 2, presented sentences were tested for recognition against unfamiliar sentences. Recognition ratings were higher if the sentences were spoken with the same prosody at presentation and test than if two different prosodic versions were presented on these two occasions. This matching effect was not larger for sentences whose prosodies biased listeners toward different syntactic analyses than for sentences whose prosodies effected changes in focus. Experiment 3 showed this integration of prosody and text for nonsense sentences.
It has been frequently claimed that the meaning of syntactically ambiguous sentences (such as “Visiting relatives can be a nuisance”) can be made explicit by phonetic means such as stress and intonation. This study describes some ways in which such disambiguation can be accomplished. Fifteen ambiguous sentences were first read by four speakers. The ambiguities were then pointed out, and each speaker stated which meaning he had intended to produce. Each sentence was then produced again twice, the speaker making a conscious effort to differentiate between the two potential meanings. Thirty listeners tried to identify the meaning which the speakers had intended. In 10 out of 15 cases, listeners performed at better than chance level, which implies that the intention of the speakers was successfully communicated to the listeners. The suprasegmentalpatterns employed by the speakers in successful disambiguation were established by acoustic analysis. While stress and intonation play a part, timing seems to have been the principal means by which the two meanings of the sentence were differentiated.
Adult subjects attempted to identify structures (words and constituents) in sentences of a language they did not know. They heard each sentence twice-once with a pause interrupting a structural component and once with a pause separating different structural components. They were asked to choose the version that sounded more natural. An experimental group of subjects who had been previously exposed to a spoken passage in the same language as the test sentences was more successful in identifying structures of the sentences than was the control group with previous exposure to another language. This result was interpreted as demonstrating that language structure may be partially acquired during a brief exposure without reliance on meaning. It was also noted that the experimental group identified constituents more accurately than words. This result suggested that constituents, more than words, function as acquisitional units of language.
The subjects' ability to segment foreign speech was examined. Naturalness judgments regarding three syntactically defined pauses [between constituents (noun and verb phrases), words, or syllables] were obtained using a paired-presentation, forced-choice paradigm. It was hypothesized that segmentation skill developed through exposure to lexical and syntactic markers. Teh existence and effect of such markers was investigated by assigning subjects to various exposure conditions.
Results indicated that lexical and syntactic markers exist and can be utilized by subjects in segmenting speech. Contrary to previous research, however, exposure did not facilitate performance. All groups discriminated constituents from either words or syllables, and words from syllables. Results were interpreted as reflecting the interdependence of syntax and suprasegmental phonology. Results challenged the credibility of traditional associationist accounts of language acquisition and speech perception. Results were discussed in the context of Martin's theory of the rhythmic structure of speech.