Presenter(s): Brandon Zuel
Co Presenter(s): Rachael Dahlen, Sean Galka
Faculty Mentor(s): Stephanie De Anda & Lauren Cycyk
Poster 157
Session: Social Sciences & Humanities
The use of parent report is a common method for quantifying language exposure in bilingual children. A less studied method is analyzing real-world language input. Additionally, there is a lack of research that examines how English and Spanish language input from television (TV) can impact the linguistic experience of bilingual children. The present study seeks to fill the gap of quantifying language exposure by examining the amount of language input in each language through real-world audio recording in the everyday lives of bilingual toddlers.
The study presents data on participants from Spanish-speaking homes (N= 10 participants; 4 female, 6 male, median age = 19.5 months; range: 17 months to 22 months). Sixteen hours of language input data were collected over three days for each participant. From these recordings, we calculated exposure to Spanish and English via TV sources during periods when the child had the highest amount of (a) adult words, (b) linguistically meaningful interactions (highest amount of human input within six feet), and (c) child-directed speech (versus overheard speech).
Results showed that TV exposure is related to the segmentation method categories of highest adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and highest child-directed speech due to a lot of meaningful language being present within those language samples. Typically, we found that the moments of high TV exposure did not align with moments of high language exposure as a function of adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and child-directed speech. This work informs our understanding of the language environment of bilinguals across a variety of sources.