Toddlers raised in multi-dialectal families learn words better in accented speech than those raised in monodialectal families

Abstract

Multi-accent environments offer rich but inconsistent language input, as words are produced differently across accents. The current study examined, in two experiments, whether multi-accent variability affects infants’ ability to learn words and whether toddlers’ prior experience with accents modulates learning. In Experiment 1, two-and-a-half-year-old Norwegian toddlers were exposed, in their kindergarten, twice per day for one week, to a child-friendly audiovisual tablet-based e-book containing four novel pseudowords. Half of the toddlers heard the story in three Norwegian accents, whereas the other half heard it in one Norwegian accent. The results revealed no differences between conditions, suggesting that multi-accent variability did not hinder toddlers’ word learning. In experiment 2, two-and-a-half-year-old Norwegian toddlers were exposed, in their homes, for one week, to the e-book featuring three Norwegian accents. The results revealed overall better learning in toddlers raised in bi-dialectal households, as compared to mono-dialectal peers – suggesting that accent exposure benefits learning in multi-accent environments.

Coping with dialects from birth: Role of variability on infants’ early language development. Insights from Norwegian dialects

“…Overall, although bidialectal infants seem to essentially catch up with their monodialectal peers by 3 years of age, an impact on their speech processing seems to persist when the task demands are high (Buckler & Johnson, 2020), in line with the assumption that early exposure to accent variation continues to impact language processing into adulthood (Chen et al, 2017;Kirk et al, 2018), in addition to the beneficial effects of adapting better to regional dialects in children (Levy et al, 2019) and of better word learning from multidialectal input in toddlers (Kartushina et al, 2021).…”

“…Research with older Norwegian infants is needed to assess the onset of word comprehension in bidialectal infants. ing in accented speech (Kartushina et al, 2021), and by roughly 3 years of age bidialectal infants show similar processing times as their peers, suggesting that difficulties related to processing inconsistent speech input might be overcome by 3 years of age (Buckler et al, 2017). Yet, more research is needed to examine the role of degree of dialect/accent similarity on language acquisition, as revealed in the current study.…”

“…In particular, our results for familiar word recognition and word comprehension suggest that early word representations in bidialectal infants are likely phonologically less specified and/or broader. However, already by 2 years of age, bidialectal infants show dialect-sensitive accurate knowledge of the phonological categories in both dialects: they adapt their phonological expectations based on the phonetic contrastive cues relevant for a speaker's dialect (van der Feest & Johnson, 2016) and by 2.5 years of age, bidialectal infants show an advantage in word learning in accented speech (Kartushina et al, 2021), and by roughly 3 years of age bidialectal infants show similar processing times as their peers, suggesting that difficulties related to processing inconsistent speech input might be overcome by 3 years of age (Buckler et al, 2017). Yet, although bidialectal infants seem to essentially catch up with their monodialectal peers by 3 years of age, an impact on their speech processing seems to persist when the task demands are high (Buckler & Johnson, 2020), in line with the assumption that early exposure to accent variation continues to impact language processing into adulthood (Chen et al, 2017;Kirk et al, 2018), in addition to the beneficial effects of adapting better to regional dialects in children (Levy et al, 2019) and of better word learning from multi-dialectal input in toddlers (Kartushina et al, 2021).…”

“…In particular, our results for familiar word recognition and word comprehension suggest that early word representations in bidialectal infants are likely phonologically less specified (and/or broader) and vary in specificity/broadness as a function of dialect similarity in parental/family speech. However, already by 2 years of age, bidialectal infants show dialect‐sensitive accurate knowledge of the phonological categories in both dialects: they adapt their phonological expectations based on the phonetic contrastive cues relevant for a speaker's dialect (van der Feest & Johnson, 2016 ), and flexibly adapt to variable input (van der Feest et al, 2022 ); by 2.5 years of age, bidialectal infants show an advantage in word learning in accented speech (Kartushina et al., 2021 ), and by roughly 3 years of age bidialectal infants show similar processing times as their peers, suggesting that difficulties related to processing inconsistent speech input might be overcome by 3 years of age (Buckler et al., 2017 ). Yet, more research is needed to examine the role of degree of dialect/accent similarity on language acquisition, as revealed in the current study.…”

Spot It and Learn It! Word Learning in Virtual Peer‐Group Interactions Using a Novel Paradigm for School‐Aged Children

“…A few recent studies suggest that they do. Kartushina, Rosslund, and Mayor (2021) examined word learning in toddlers growing up in bidialectal language settings in Norway, with parents speaking different regional dialects. Toddlers listened to a story in three different regional accents on three consecutive days and were then tested on word-learning performance in a passive recognition test.…”