Repetition across successive sentences facilitates young children’s word learning.

Abstract

Young children who hear more child-directed speech (CDS) tend to have larger vocabularies later in childhood, but the specific characteristics of CDS underlying this link are currently underspecified. The present study sought to elucidate how the structure of language input boosts learning by investigating whether repetition of object labels in successive sentences – a common feature of natural CDS – promotes young children’s efficiency in learning new words. Using a looking-while-listening paradigm, two-year-old children were taught the names of novel objects, with exposures either repeated across successive sentences or distributed throughout labeling episodes. Results showed successful learning only when label/object pairs had been repeated in blocks of successive sentences, suggesting that immediate opportunities to detect recurring structure facilitate young children’s learning. These findings offer insight into how the information flow within child-directed speech might influence vocabulary development, and we consider the findings alongside research showing the benefits of distributing information across time.

Language learning, socioeconomic status, and child‐directed speech

“…Partial repetition also supports the learning of new words. In a short word‐learning paradigm, 2‐year‐old children only showed successful learning of novel words when exposures had been repeated across successive sentences, as opposed to distributed throughout labeling episodes, suggesting that immediate opportunities to detect recurring structure facilitate young children's learning . Similar benefits of repetition have also been shown in the context of cross‐situational word learning; immediate repetition of word/object pairs in ambiguous contexts seems to help infants track co‐occurrence probabilities across learning events in order to successfully map labels onto objects .…”

Rapid Statistical Learning Supporting Word Extraction From Continuous Speech

“…For example, infant-directed speech is characterized by the frequent repetition of words compared to non-infant-directed speech (Cockcroft, 2002), and repetitiveness in maternal input at age 7 months predicts language outcomes at age 2 (Newman, Rowe & Bernstein, 2016). Another study found that word learning in 2-year-old children was successful only when the names of novel objects were repeated across successive sentences, rather than distributed throughout labeling episodes, suggesting that immediate opportunities to detect recurring structure facilitate young children’s word learning (Schwab & Lew-Williams, 2016). Given evidence that statistical learning operates in both children and adults (Saffran et al, 1996a, 1996b, 1997), frequent word repetitions may also support second language acquisition in adult learners.…”

Teaching and learning vocabulary in context: Examining engagement in three prekindergarten French classrooms

“…Research has shown that vocabulary knowledge plays a crucial role in both first (L1) and second language (L2) proficiency (Hacking & Tschirner, 2017;Hatch, 1983;Schwab & Lew-Williams, 2016;Tabors & Dickinson, 2001;Vermeer, 1992). Repetition has generally been considered to be the single most important approach for helping students to recall vocabulary in first language (L1) learning (Baddeley, 1997;Yates, 1966) and studies have shown that repetition is particularly beneficial for students with L1 reading disabilities (Burns, Dean, & Foley, 2004;Volpe, Burns, Dubois, & Zaslofsky, 2011).…”