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What is a representative language sample for word and sound acquisition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2018

Naomi Yamaguchi
Naomi Yamaguchi*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, CNRS and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3
*
naomi.yamaguchi@univ-paris3.fr
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Abstract

Naturalistic data are a useful source for language acquisition research. Recently, the emphasis has been placed on using denser corpora, in order to capture a more accurate picture of child language development. However, working with large amounts of data raises resource issues, since it is time-consuming to record and to transcribe. In this article, I focus on what would be the ideal duration of a naturalistic recording for it to be considered a representative enough sample of children's linguistic behaviours to observe the acquisition of words and sounds. Some of the results suggest that 30 minutes of recording may be enough to capture these specific developments, but these results are discussed in the perspective of what an ideal session could be.

Résumé

Les données naturalistes sont une ressource utile pour la recherche en acquisition du langage. Récemment, l'emphase a été mise sur l'importance de corpus plus denses afin de rendre compte de façon précise du développement du langage chez l'enfant. Cependant, travailler avec de grandes quantités de données soulève des problèmes de ressources, étant donné le coût en temps de l'enregistrement et de la transcription. Dans cet article, je traite de la durée idéale d'un enregistrement naturaliste, pour que ce dernier soit considéré comme un échantillon représentatif des comportements linguistiques des enfants quand on veut observer l'acquisition des mots et des sons. Certains des résultats suggèrent que 30 minutes d'enregistrement peuvent suffire pour rendre compte de ces développements spécifiques, mais ces résultats sont discutés par rapport à ce que pourrait être une session idéale.

Keywords

methodologylanguage acquisitionnaturalistic datalexical developmentphonological developmentméthodologieacquisition du langagedonnées naturalistesdéveloppement lexicaldéveloppement phonologique
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 63 , Issue 4: Phonetic/phonological development and input characteristics in early lexical acquisition/Le développement phonétique/phonologique et les caractéristiques de l'apport linguistique dans l'acquisition lexicale précoce , December 2018 , pp. 667 - 685
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2018 

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