The development of dialect classification across the lifespan

Jones, Zack; Yan, Qingyang; Wagner, Laura; Clopper, Cynthia G.

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2016.11.001

Cited by 35 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In this model, children are initially thought to focus on learning the basic grammar of their language from their parents/caregivers, with the ability to understand the social significance of dialect variation only emerging in early adolescence (cf. Jones et al, 2017). Whilst our results support the idea that children's representations are likely initially influenced primarily by their core set of experiences with their home dialect(s), they also suggest that social context plays an important role in the development of sociolinguistic awareness.…”

Section: Comprehensionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…It therefore seems unlikely that our monolingual children were unable to do this task either because it is too difficult for children at this age (cf. Jones et al, 2017) or because they had no experience with those accents. Perhaps a better explanation is that successful categorization of talkers according to regional accent involves not only development of the ability to track acoustic-phonetic differences between talkers, consistent with the gradient representation hypothesis, but also an understanding of how patterns of variation are used meaningfully within a community.…”

Section: Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Language Background on the Development of Sociolinguistic Awareness: The Perception of Accent Variation in Monolingual and Multilingual 5- to 7-Year-Old Children

Evans

Lourido

2019

Phonetica

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As a result of complex international migration patterns, listeners in large urban centres such as London, UK, likely encounter large amounts of variation in spoken language. However, although dealing with variation is crucial to communication, relatively little is known about how the ability to do this develops. Still less is known about how this might be affected by language background. The current study investigates whether early experience with variation, specifically growing up bilingually in London, affects accent categorization. Sixty children (30 monolingual, 30 bilingual) aged 5–7 years, were tested in their ability to comprehend and categorize talkers in 2 out of 3 accents: a home, unfamiliar regional and unfamiliar foreign-accented variety. All children demonstrated high, above-chance performance in the comprehension task, but language background significantly affected the children’s ability to categorize talkers. Bilinguals were able to categorize talkers in all accent conditions, but although all children were able to understand the talkers, monolingual children were only able to categorize talkers in the home-foreign accent condition. Overall, the results are consistent with an approach in which gradient representations of accent variation emerge alongside an understanding of how variation is used meaningfully within a child’s environment.

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Section: Comprehensionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Language Background on the Development of Sociolinguistic Awareness: The Perception of Accent Variation in Monolingual and Multilingual 5- to 7-Year-Old Children

Evans

Lourido

2019

Phonetica

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“…At about this same age, children possess a developing understanding of the relationship between the language variety spoken by somebody and their likely geographic origins and cultural preferences (Kinzler & DeJesus, 2013;Wagner, Clopper, & Pate, 2014;Weatherhead, Friedman, & White, 2018;Weatherhead, White, & Friedman, 2016). Although children have an early general understanding that language is linked to geography and culture, more specific knowledge about these links takes time (and exposure) to develop (Jones, Yan, Wagner, & Clopper, 2017;Kinzler & DeJesus, 2013). For example, children may prefer to be friends with a speaker of their own regional variety by the age of 5 years, but do not demonstrate explicit negative stereotypes about speakers from other regions until 9 or 10.…”

Section: The Effect Of Language Variation On Social Inferences and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental sociolinguistics: Children's acquisition of language variation

Johnson

White

2019

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Developmental sociolinguistics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary framework that builds upon theoretical and methodological contributions from multiple disciplines (i.e., sociolinguistics, language acquisition, the speech sciences, developmental psychology, and psycholinguistics). A core assumption of this framework is that language is by its very nature variable, and that much of this variability is informative, as it is (probabilistically) governed by a variety of factors—including linguistic context, social or cultural context, the relationship between speaker and addressee, a language user's geographic origin, and a language user's gender identity. It is becoming increasingly clear that consideration of these factors is absolutely essential to developing realistic and ecologically valid models of language development. Given the central importance of language in our social world, a more complete understanding of early social development will also require a deeper understanding of when and how language variation influences children's social inferences and behavior. As the cross‐pollination between formerly disparate fields continues, we anticipate a paradigm shift in the way many language researchers conceptualize the challenge of early acquisition. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Linguistic Theory Linguistics > Language Acquisition Neuroscience > Development Psychology > Language

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“…Although we did not examine accent strength in this study, it is possible that the strength of a person’s accent may influence children’s social perceptions of that person. Even relatively young children can draw distinctions based on subtle differences in the ways in which other people speak, including non-native accents, regional accents, and registers (Jones, Yan, Wagner, & Clopper, 2017; Kinzler & DeJesus, 2013b; Wagner, Greene-Havas, & Gillespie, 2010), and this capacity increases across early childhood (Floccia, Butler, Girard, & Goslin, 2009; Jones et al, 2017). It is possible that children’s social preferences may track, at least in part, with their perception of the strength of an individual’s accent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bilingual children’s social preferences hinge on accent

DeJesus

Hwang

Dautel

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Past research finds that monolingual and bilingual children prefer native speakers to individuals who speak in unfamiliar foreign languages or accents. Do children in bilingual contexts socially distinguish among familiar languages and accents and, if so, how do their social preferences based on language and accent compare? The present studies tested whether 5- to 7- year-old children in two bilingual contexts in the United States demonstrate social preferences among the languages and accents that are present in their social environments. We compared children’s preferences based on language (i.e., English versus their other native language) and their preferences based on accent (i.e., English with a native accent versus English with a non-native, yet familiar, accent). In Experiment 1, children attending a French immersion school demonstrated no preference between English and French speakers, but preferred American-accented English to French-accented English. In Experiment 2, bilingual Korean-American children demonstrated no preference between English and Korean speakers, but preferred American-accented English to Korean-accented English. Across studies, bilingual children’s preferences based on accent (i.e., American-accented English over French- or Korean-accented English) was not related to their own language dominance. These results suggest that children from diverse linguistic backgrounds demonstrate social preferences for native-accented speakers. Implications for understanding the potential relation between social reasoning and language acquisition are discussed.

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The development of dialect classification across the lifespan

Cited by 35 publications

References 30 publications

Effects of Language Background on the Development of Sociolinguistic Awareness: The Perception of Accent Variation in Monolingual and Multilingual 5- to 7-Year-Old Children

Effects of Language Background on the Development of Sociolinguistic Awareness: The Perception of Accent Variation in Monolingual and Multilingual 5- to 7-Year-Old Children

Developmental sociolinguistics: Children's acquisition of language variation

Bilingual children’s social preferences hinge on accent

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