How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning…

The present study investigates how age, phonological saliency, and deviance size affect the presence of mismatch negativity (MMN) and positive mismatch response (P-MMR). This work measured the auditory mismatch responses to Mandarin lexical tones, initial consonants, and vowels in 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers using the multiple-deviant oddball…

L1-Spanish L2-English listeners' perception of a Canadian-English /bIt/-/bId/-/bit/-/bid/ continuum was investigated. Results were largely consistent with the developmental stages for L1-Spanish listeners' acquisition of English /i/ and /I/ hypothesized by Escudero (2000): Stage 0, inability to distinguish. Stage 1, duration based. Stage 2,…

To evaluate the relative contributions of auditory perceptual access and production system characteristics to early vocalization patterns, three infants identified with hearing loss at birth were followed longitudinally for 11 months beginning at 4 to 6 months hearing age (i.e. time of post-hearing instrument fitting). The infant with…

Identification of correctly produced and misarticulated /w,r,l,j/ was examined in 12 children, aged 3:6-7:5. The children, their parents, and raters were more successful in identifying correctly produced semivowels than misarticulated ones. Both normal children with developmental substitutions and articulation-impaired children demonstrated…

In the 1920s and 1930s, interpretations of reading readiness held that learning to read occurred at a specific point in cognitive development. Postponement of reading instruction until a child reached this stage of maturity was widely accepted at that time, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The 1960s marked a transition period in terms of…