Tag: Poster 157

Melting Sea Ice and its Effects on Indigenous Arctic People

Presenter(s): Nick Hawes − Biology

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey

Poster 157

Research Area: Social Science

The purpose of this research is to identify how melting sea ice affects the indigenous people of the arctic. The indigenous people of the arctic, or Inuit, are very susceptible to changes in their environment due to their strong connections with the land and ice. Over many years the Inuit have adapted special techniques to survive in the harsh conditions of the arctic environment. As the natural environment gets disrupted due to climate change, the sea ice melts, changing their cultures. Melting sea ice affects the Inuit both physically and spiritually and has an impact on how they travel and interact with the environment. The other major problem produced from melting sea ice is the effect it has on the migration patterns of native species such as whales and seals. The effect on whales and seal is a problem since the changing migrations patterns force changes and adaptations of the Inuit hunting techniques, as well as representing increased vulnerability of the Inuit people to climate changes. The effect melting sea ice has on the Inuit people was determined through case studies of communities, studies on the migration of whales and seal, as well as other readings.

Comparing Language Input Measures with TV Exposure in Dual Language Learners

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.