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Language mixing is a common feature of many bilingually-raised children's input. Yet how it is related to their language development remains an open question. The current study investigated mixed-language input indexed by observed (30-second segment) counts and proportions in day-long recordings as well as parent-reported scores, in relation to infant vocal activeness (i.e., volubility) when infants were 10 and 18 months old. Results suggested infants who received a higher score or proportion of mixed input in one-on-one social contexts were less voluble. However, within contexts involving language mixing, infants who heard more words were also the ones who produced more vocalizations. These divergent associations between mixed input and infant vocal development point for a need to better understand the causal factors that drive these associations.

Purpose: Measuring language input, especially for infants growing up in bilingual environments, is challenging. Although the ways to measure input have expanded rapidly in recent years, there are many unresolved issues. In this study, we compared different measurement units and sampling methods used to estimate bilingual input in naturalistic daylong recordings. Method: We used the Language Environment Analysis system to obtain and process naturalistic daylong recordings from 21 French–English bilingual families with an infant at 10 and 18 months of age. We examined global and context-specific input estimates and their relation with infant vocal activeness (i.e., volubility) when input was indexed by different units (adult word counts, speech duration, 30-s segment counts) and using different sampling methods (every-other-segment, top-segment). Results: Input measures indexed by different units were strongly and positively correlated with each other and yielded similar results regarding their relation with infant volubility. As for sampling methods, sampling every other 30-s segment was representative of the entire corpus. However, sampling the top segments with the densest input was less representative and yielded different results regarding their relation with infant volubility. Conclusions: How well the input that a child receives throughout a day is portrayed by a selected sample and correlates with the child's vocal activeness depends on the choice of input units and sampling methods. Different input units appear to generate consistent results, while caution should be taken when choosing sampling methods. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22335688

Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about the extent to which the role of linguistic skills such as phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA) in reading is universal. In this meta-analysis, the authors examined the relationship between PA, MA, and reading (accuracy, fluency, and comprehension) in 2 languages (English and Chinese) representing different writing systems (alphabetic and logographic). A random-effects model analysis of data from 64 studies with native speakers of each language revealed significant correlations between PA, MA, and all reading outcomes in both languages. The correlations remained significant even after controlling for each other’s effect on reading. However, PA was a stronger correlate of reading in English than in Chinese. MA was as good a correlate of reading in English as in Chinese (except for comprehension, where it was better). In addition, complex PA tasks in English and production/compounding MA tasks in Chinese produced significantly larger correlations with reading accuracy. Taken together, the findings of this meta-analysis suggest that PA and MA are significant correlates of reading, but their role is influenced by the writing system, the type of reading outcome, and the type of task used to operationalize PA and MA. The implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Prior studies suggest that parent-infant interactions play an important role on infant volubility, which is an important indication of language development. However, little is known about how speaker and language contexts affect infant volubility in bilingual infants. In the current study, we examined how the speaker context (Mother versus Father) and the language context (French versus English) might influence bilingual infants’ rate of vocalization and turn-taking. We analyzed naturalistic daylong recordings from English-French bilingual parent/infant dyads (n = 21). Preliminary analysis showed that mothers elicited more turn-taking in their 10-month-old infants than fathers did, but they did not elicit more vocalizations. Importantly, there was no effect of language on infant vocalization or turn-taking. We will alsoreport analyses that examine whether the dominant language in the bilingual child’s input has an effect on infant volubility that is independent of talker effects. These novel findings will inform our understanding of how parent-infant interactions shape the language development of infants being raised in bilingual families.

Summary Objectives This study examined whether prenatal exposure to either a tonal or a nontonal maternal language affects fundamental frequency (fo) properties in neonatal crying. Study Design This is a population prospective study. Participants A total of 102 neonates within the first week of life served as the participants. Methods Spontaneously uttered cries (N = 6480) by Chinese (tonal language group) and German neonates (nontonal group) were quantitatively analyzed. For each cry utterance, mean fo and four characteristic variation measures (fo range, fo fluctuation, pitch sigma, and pitch sigma fluctuation) were calculated, averaged for individual neonates, and compared between groups. Results A multiple analysis of variance highlighted a significant multivariate effect for language group: Wilks λ = .76, F (6, 95) = 4.96, P η p 2 = .24. Subsequent univariate analyses revealed significant group differences for fo variation measures, with values higher in the tonal language group. The mean fo did not differ between groups. Conclusions Data regarding fo variation in infant cries have been suggested as providing critical insight into the maturity of neurophysiological vocal control. Our findings, alongside with auditive perception studies, further underscore the assumption of an early shaping effect of maternal speech, particularly fo-based features, on cry features of newborns. Further studies are needed to reexamine this observation and to assess its potential diagnostic relevance.