中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 The vocabulary of babies who are bilingual remains flexible as they grow up (Library image) |
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The vocabulary of babies who are bilingual remains flexible as they grow up and boosts their speaking ability as toddlers, a university study has found. Babies and children have a great ability to learn a second language but that begins to fade as early as their first birthdays. Now researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences are investigating the brain mechanisms that contribute to infants' prowess at learning languages, with the hope that the findings could boost bilingualism in adults, too. In the research, the scientists report that the brains of babies raised in bilingual households show a longer period of being flexible to different languages, especially if they hear a lot of language at home. The researchers also show that the relative amount of each language - English and Spanish - babies were exposed to affected their vocabulary as toddlers. The study, published in Journal of Phonetics, is the first to measure brain activity throughout infancy and relate it to language exposure and speaking ability. 'The bilingual brain is fascinating because it reflects humans' abilities for flexible thinking - bilingual babies learn that objects and events in the world have two names, and flexibly switch between these labels, giving the brain lots of good exercise,' said Patricia Kuhl, co-author of the study and co-director of the UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Kuhl's previous studies show that between 8 and 10 months of age, monolingual babies become increasingly able to distinguish speech sounds of their native language, while at the same time their ability to distinguish sounds from a foreign language declines. For instance, between 8 and 10 months of age babies exposed to English become better at detecting the difference between 'r' and 'l' sounds, which are prevalent in the English language. This is the same age when Japanese babies, who are not exposed to as many 'r' and 'l' sounds, decline in their ability to detect them. (Read by Christine Mallari. Christine Mallari is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
一項(xiàng)大學(xué)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，接受雙語(yǔ)教育的寶寶在成長(zhǎng)過程中可以靈活地掌握兩門語(yǔ)言的詞匯，而且學(xué)步時(shí)期的口語(yǔ)表達(dá)能力也能有所提高。 嬰兒和兒童在學(xué)習(xí)第二門語(yǔ)言方面能力很強(qiáng)，但早在他們過第一個(gè)生日的時(shí)候，這種能力就開始逐漸退化。 目前，華盛頓大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)與腦科學(xué)研究所的研究人員們?cè)趯?duì)促進(jìn)嬰兒非凡的語(yǔ)言能力的大腦機(jī)制進(jìn)行研究，他們希望研究結(jié)果也可以推動(dòng)成人的雙語(yǔ)教育。 在研究中，科學(xué)家們報(bào)告說，成長(zhǎng)在雙語(yǔ)家庭中、特別是在家能聽到大量語(yǔ)言交流的寶寶的大腦表現(xiàn)出更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的對(duì)不同語(yǔ)言的靈敏度。 研究者們還揭示說，在嬰兒時(shí)期接觸到的各種語(yǔ)言（英語(yǔ)或西班牙語(yǔ)）的數(shù)量，會(huì)影響到他們學(xué)步時(shí)期的詞匯量。 這項(xiàng)發(fā)表在《語(yǔ)音學(xué)期刊》上的研究第一次對(duì)嬰兒時(shí)期的大腦活動(dòng)進(jìn)行測(cè)量，并將其與語(yǔ)言環(huán)境和口語(yǔ)能力聯(lián)系起來。 帕特麗夏?庫(kù)爾是該研究的合著者之一，也是華盛頓大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)與大腦科學(xué)研究所的副主任，她說：“雙語(yǔ)大腦很棒，因?yàn)樗梢苑从吵鋈祟愳`活思維的能力。雙語(yǔ)寶寶們認(rèn)識(shí)到世界上的物體和事件都有兩個(gè)名稱，并能在不同的名稱之間靈活轉(zhuǎn)換，這給了大腦很多有益的鍛煉?！?/p> 庫(kù)爾之前的研究顯示，只接觸一種語(yǔ)言的寶寶在8個(gè)月到10個(gè)月大的時(shí)候分辨母語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音方面能力會(huì)日益增強(qiáng)，但與此同時(shí)，分辨外語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音的能力卻減弱了。 比方說，接觸英語(yǔ)的寶寶們?cè)?個(gè)月至10個(gè)月大的時(shí)候會(huì)更容易分辨r和l兩個(gè)音的區(qū)別，而這兩個(gè)音在英語(yǔ)中很普遍。 而同年齡的日本寶寶們沒有接觸到那么多的r和l，所以他們分辨出這兩個(gè)音的能力也在下降。 相關(guān)閱讀 嬰兒哭聲藏玄機(jī) 聲調(diào)不同因在母語(yǔ) （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 實(shí)習(xí)生沈清 編輯：陳丹妮） |
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Vocabulary: prowess: 非凡的能力；高超的本領(lǐng) label: 稱號(hào) prevalent: 普遍的 |
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