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How Infant Speech Perception Contributes to Language Acquisition
Author(s) -
Gervain Judit,
Werker Janet F.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00089.x
Subject(s) - perception , speech perception , psychology , motor theory of speech perception , task (project management) , language acquisition , linguistics , computer science , cognitive psychology , philosophy , management , neuroscience , economics , mathematics education
Abstract Perceiving the acoustic signal as a sequence of meaningful linguistic representations is a challenging task, which infants seem to accomplish effortlessly, despite the fact that they do not have a fully developed knowledge of language. The present article takes an integrative approach to infant speech perception, emphasizing how young learners’ perception of speech helps them acquire abstract structural properties of language. We introduce what is known about infants’ perception of language at birth. Then, we will discuss how perception develops during the first 2 years of life and describe some general perceptual mechanisms whose importance for speech perception and language acquisition has recently been established. To conclude, we discuss the implications of these empirical findings for language acquisition.