Vocal input and output among infants in a multilingual context: Evidence from long‐form recordings in Vanuatu

Cristià, Alejandrina; Gautheron, Lucas; Colleran, Heidi

doi:10.1111/desc.13375

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Unfortunately, automated tools for separating child-directed from overheard speech are not yet sufficiently accurate to make this possible ( 46 ). Future work could also develop promising approaches for considering other sources of speech (e.g., other children) given their relevance as a function of family structure ( 47 ). These approaches were not possible here due to both technical algorithmic constraints and family structure information not being available in our data subsets.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents

Bergelson,

Soderstrom,

Schwarz

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Language is a universal human ability, acquired readily by young children, who otherwise struggle with many basics of survival. And yet, language ability is variable across individuals. Naturalistic and experimental observations suggest that children’s linguistic skills vary with factors like socioeconomic status and children’s gender. But which factors really influence children’s day-to-day language use? Here, we leverage speech technology in a big-data approach to report on a unique cross-cultural and diverse data set: >2,500 d-long, child-centered audio-recordings of 1,001 2- to 48-mo-olds from 12 countries spanning six continents across urban, farmer-forager, and subsistence-farming contexts. As expected, age and language-relevant clinical risks and diagnoses predicted how much speech (and speech-like vocalization) children produced. Critically, so too did adult talk in children’s environments: Children who heard more talk from adults produced more speech. In contrast to previous conclusions based on more limited sampling methods and a different set of language proxies, socioeconomic status (operationalized as maternal education) was not significantly associated with children’s productions over the first 4 y of life, and neither were gender or multilingualism. These findings from large-scale naturalistic data advance our understanding of which factors are robust predictors of variability in the speech behaviors of young learners in a wide range of everyday contexts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents

Bergelson,

Soderstrom,

Schwarz

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Although Cristia et al. (2019) found little variation in TCD input between less ( N = 5 villages) versus more market‐integrated villages ( N = 1), it would be worthwhile to systematically evaluate linguistic experiences in heterogeneous villages in the future (e.g., Cristia et al., 2023; Padilla‐Iglesias et al., 2021). Expanding the sample would also allow for a more balanced gender distribution than analysed here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of children's verbal input in a forager‐farmer population using long‐form audio recordings and diverse input definitions

Scaff,

Casillas,

Stieglitz

et al. 2023

Infancy

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There is little systematically collected quantitative empirical data on how much linguistic input children in small‐scale societies encounter, with some estimates suggesting low levels of directed speech. We report on an ecologically‐valid analysis of speech experienced over the course of a day by young children (N = 24, 6–58 months old, 33% female) in a forager‐horticulturalist population of lowland Bolivia. A permissive definition of input (i.e., including overlapping, background, and non‐linguistic vocalizations) leads to massive changes in terms of input quantity, including a quadrupling of the estimate for overall input compared to a restrictive definition (only near and clear speech), while who talked to and around a focal child is relatively stable across input definitions. We discuss implications of these results for theoretical and empirical research into language acquisition.

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“…This is problematic as there is a need for better representation of all cultures and linguistic experiences for greater equity and diversity in research. Motivated by these considerations, researchers have more recently started to collect long-form audio recordings in LMICs, namely Bolivia (Cychosz, 2022; Scaff, 2019), China (Ma et al, 2021), India (Fibla Reixachs, 2021; Meera et al, 2023; Swaminathan et al, 2022), Mexico (Casillas et al, 2020; Nee, 2021), Papua New Guinea (Casillas et al, 2021), Senegal (Weber et al, 2017), Solomon Islands (Cassar et al, 2022), Vanuatu (Cristia et al, 2023) and Vietnam (Ganek and Eriks-Brophy, 2018b). 2 Although this work increases the diversity of participant samples, it is far from representative of live births, which in 2021 happened primarily in LMICs with 19% in low-income countries, 72% in middle-income countries and 9% in high-income countries (based on data from Our World in Data, 2022).…”

Section: What Are Long-form Recordings?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Avineri et al, 2015; Golinkoff et al, 2019). Moreover, metrics used by researchers are influenced by their beliefs, such as the quantification of children’s input via Adult Word Count, which only considers adults and not other children as potential sources of relevant linguistic experiences (Cristia et al, 2023). It also means that any benefit arising from that research is more likely to bypass them (see also the Lack of sufficient benefits to host communities section below).…”

Section: Ethical Challenges For Research Relying On Long-form Recordi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-form recordings in low- and middle-income countries: recommendations to achieve respectful research

Léon,

Meera,

Fiévet

et al. 2023

Research Ethics

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The last decade has seen a rise in big data approaches, including in the humanities, whereby large quantities of data are collected and analysed. In this paper, we discuss long-form audio recordings that result from individuals wearing a recording device for many hours. Linguists, psychologists and anthropologists can use them, for example, to study infants’ or adults’ linguistic behaviour. In the past, recorded individuals and communities have resided in high-income countries (HICs) almost exclusively. Recognising the need for better representation of all cultures and linguistic experiences, researchers have more recently started to collect long-form audio recordings in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aim to help researchers to collect, analyse and use these recordings ethically. To do so, we identify four main ethical challenges linked to research that relies on long-form recordings in LMICs. We provide recommendations to overcome these challenges. These considerations should be useful to researchers employing other big data techniques collected via wearables.

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Vocal input and output among infants in a multilingual context: Evidence from long‐form recordings in Vanuatu

Cited by 8 publications

References 72 publications

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents

Characterization of children's verbal input in a forager‐farmer population using long‐form audio recordings and diverse input definitions

Long-form recordings in low- and middle-income countries: recommendations to achieve respectful research

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