Joint attention and word learning in Ngas-speaking toddlers in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines infants' joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included 8 younger (1;0 to 1;5, M age = 1;2) and 8 older toddlers (1;7 to 2;7, M age = 2;1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points 6 months apart. Analyses revealed that these toddlers were producing more high level joint attention behaviors than less complex behaviors. In addition, the quality and quantity of behaviors produced by these Nigerian children was similar to those found in other cultures. In analyses of children's noun and verb comprehension and production (in relation to the number of nouns or verbs on a parental checklist), parents reported proportionally more verbs than nouns, perhaps because Ngas has some linguistic characteristics that are similar to languages in which a noun bias is not seen (e.g., Mandarin Chinese). An examination of the interrelations of joint attention and language development revealed that joint attention behaviors were related to both noun and verb development at different times. The set of results is important for understanding the emergence of joint attention in traditional cultures, the comprehension and production of nouns and verbs given the specific linguistic properties of a language, and the importance that early social contexts may have for language development.

Language Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…However, Childers et al (2007) also found that joint attention behaviours were just as closely linked to lexical development -both noun and verb comprehension and production -as in previous studies in developed regions. Although parent and caregiver joint attention behaviours may be different in this culture, this does not seem to affect the relationship between joint attention and vocabulary.…”

“…Two research groups (Alcock, Rimba, Abubakar, & Holding, 2005;Childers, Vaughan, & Burquest, 2007) have examined the composition of early vocabulary among children in the region learning Kiswahili and Kigiriama, and Ngas, spoken in Kenya and Nigeria respectively. Typically nouns predominate in early production vocabulary, and this is true across many languages studied to date (Bornstein et al, 2004).…”

“…In four different areas of the region a Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) method has been used for assessment of children's vocabulary development (Alcock, et al, 2005;Childers, et al, 2007;Mastin & Vogt, 2011a, 2011bPrado et al, 2011). We discuss this under the heading of lexical development as this is the main use of this type of assessment but it is also used in studies of gesture and grammatical development.…”

“…If whole classes of words are omitted, no data can be collected relating to these classes of words; this criticism can be levelled at the CDI used by Childers et al (2007). Although children may not produce a representative sample of the vocabulary they have during a session of recorded or transcribed spontaneous speech, and obviously vocabulary comprehension cannot be tested in this way, spontaneous speech samples are also a very helpful way to analyse children's early vocabulary.…”

Nouns and verbs in Chintang: children's usage and surrounding adult speech

“…Previous studies have shown that from the first words onward there are language-specific differences in the composition of the early vocabulary, and that there is no conceptually based universal noun preference in terms of the first words uttered (Childers et al, 2007;Tardif et al, 2008;Bornstein et al, 2004) nor any universal noun bias in terms of early frequencies (Tardif, 1996 ;Tardif et al, 1997;Choi & Gopnik, 1993;Brown, 1998 ;de Léon, 1999). The absence of such a universal bias means that we cannot explain the high noun-to-verb ratio in the younger children in Chintang by appeal to a conceptual basis, independent of the specific language that is acquired.…”