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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 3:47 am Post subject: Babies can tell languages apart by facial expression |
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Babies can tell languages apart by facial expression
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Four-month-old babies can discriminate between different languages merely by studying the facial movements of the speaker, according to a pioneering study of speech development in infants.
Even with the sound turned off on a video recording, babies were able to tell whether someone had switched from speaking English to speaking French, the scientists who conducted the study found.
The researchers believe that this "visual speech" ability is a critical component of language learning and is something that is retained for longer in babies brought up in bilingual homes who learn two languages at once.
Babies are acutely tuned in to the human face and can even recognise basic facial features at birth. The latest study demonstrates just how important facial movements are to language learning, the scientists report in the journal Science.
"Talking faces are among the most dynamic and salient stimuli available to infants, and the facial movements accompanying speech influence adult and infant speech perception," said Whitney Weikum, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia in Canada and lead author of the study.
Apart from the sounds made by a talking face, babies appear to be able to use the movements to determine whether someone has switched from one language to another, Ms Weikum said. |
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mokpochika
Joined: 22 Apr 2007
Location: Ann Arbor
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Really interesting article. Babies are so incredible! |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| mokpochika wrote: |
| Really interesting article. Babies are so incredible! |
No EGO until around 1 yr. after birth ....
How well can you remember? |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Babies rule |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 4:57 am Post subject: |
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Yeeeaahhh.... I dunno about that.
I'm always suspicious of research with babies where they make assumptions about cognitive activity based on attention spans.
My first nephew paid a lot of attention to jangling keys - so freaking what? There's a lot of possibilities that could explain why some bubs pay more attention, and no good reason to assume it's the one the men in lab coats are looking for. |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 5:12 am Post subject: |
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Well, not having read the actual research, who knows? But the fact that the effect disappeared only in 8 month olds NOT in bilingual households is pretty striking.
I'll let you know in six or seven months.
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