earticle

영어

Early phonetic perception abilities among newborns and infants have been considered to largely stem from inborn auditory perceptual capacities. However, recent findings have suggested that exposure to ambient language can play an early and critical role in shaping early speech perception abilities. The present study attempted to examine the role of input language in Korean-learning infants’ development of speech perception in two experiments, by using Anticipatory Eye Movement Paradigm that allows measuring individual differences in infants’ sensitivity to phonetic distinctions. In Experiment 1, native phonetic discrimination abilities of 10-11-month-olds were compared between those who were exposed to a foreign language during critical period(i.e., 9-10 months) and those who were not. In the second experiment, the relationship between socio-economic factors (e.g., maternal education) and individual differences in phoneme discrimination among 6-8-month-olds was explored. Although no significant relation between foreign language exposure and native phonetic discrimination abilities was observed, maternal education was found positively correlated with 6-8-month-olds’ phoneme discrimination abilities. Differences in maternal education are linked to the quality differences in input language to children. Therefore, these results suggest that the differences in the quality of input language can be the source of speech development differences from very early on. (Chung-Ang University)