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Volume 15, Issue 1
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Abstract

Abstract

Activity contexts are increasingly recognized as important for the variation observed in the type and quantity of speech heard by children. However, there is little data from children’s everyday experiences to properly study this role. We analyzed the quantity of target child-directed speech (TDS) and other-directed speech (ODS) according to children’s activity contexts. We used Daylong Audio Recordings of American English children aged 6–17 months old from the Bergelson Seedlings corpus. A higher quantity of ODS per minute was observed in Solitary playful and exploratory activity contexts, while a higher quantity of TDS per minute was observed in Social activity contexts in comparison to other activity contexts. However, the interindividual variation found needs to be further explored. These results highlight the link between the language environment and activity contexts, and their importance for understanding child language development.

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2024-11-14
2026-03-10

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Child activity contexts and language environments
Language, Interaction and Acquisition 15, 24 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.00021.gla
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): acquisition du langage; activity context; child-directed speech; contexte d’activité; Daylong Audio Recordings; enregistrements audio sur une journée; environnement langagier; langage adressé à l’enfant; language acquisition; language environment

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