ERIC Number: EJ1266827
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Early Language Experience in a Tseltal Mayan Village
Casillas, Marisa; Brown, Penelope; Levinson, Stephen C.
Child Development, v91 n5 p1819-1835 Sep-Oct 2020
Daylong at-home audio recordings from 10 Tseltal Mayan children (0;2-3;0; Southern Mexico) were analyzed for how often children engaged in verbal interaction with others and whether their speech environment changed with age, time of day, household size, and number of speakers present. Children were infrequently directly spoken to, with most directed speech coming from adults, and no increase with age. Most directed speech came in the mornings, and interactional peaks contained nearly four times the baseline rate of directed speech. Coarse indicators of children's language development (babbling, first words, first word combinations) suggest that Tseltal children manage to extract the linguistic information they need despite minimal directed speech. Multiple proposals for how they might do so are discussed.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Verbal Communication, Interaction, Speech Communication, Age Differences, Time, Family Structure, Children, Adults, Language Acquisition, Mayan Languages, Family Environment
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Mexico
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A