The Acoustic Features and Word Learning Effect of Infant-Directed Singing
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chen, Hsiao-Hsuan
Abstract
The speech inputs from the ambient language are influential to infants’ language development. Infant-directed speech (IDSpeech) and infant-directed singing (IDSing) are common in care-giving behaviors. Compared to adult-directed speech (ADSpeech), IDSpeech has higher pitch, longer duration, larger pitch range, and exaggerated vowel space. Besides, Mandarin IDSpeech still preserved lexical tone features while having exaggerated prosody. IDSpeech might be helpful to language learning. There are affluent studies on IDSpeech, but, relatively few studies investigated influences of IDSing on language learning. In addition, Mandarin Chinese as a tonal language, pitch height and contour manifest lexical tones of syllables. The pitch features of lexical tones in IDSing may be modified by musical pitch, diminishing tonal differences and reducing perceptual differences between words. Therefore, it raises the issue whether IDSing facilitates word development in tonal-language learning infants. In this study, the roles of IDSing on language development were assessed with acoustic analysis and word-learning task. Experiment 1 investigated the acoustic features of IDSing. Eleven (n = 9) and twenty-four (n = 9) month-old infant-mother dyads were recruited. There were three recording conditions: ADSpeech, IDSpeech, and IDSing. Results indicated that IDSing has higher pitch and longer duration, which are similar to IDSpeech. Nonetheless, the pitch range and vowel space are not expanded in IDSing, compared with IDSpeech. The features of lexical tones are different from speech conditions, suggesting that the lexical tones are not completely preserved in singing condition. Experiment 2 examined the word learning effect of IDSing by using the eye-tracker in a preferential looking paradigm. Fourteen (n=30), eighteen (n=32) and twenty-four (n=33) month-old infants were randomly assigned to either speech or singing word learning condition. The results showed that 18 and 24 month-old infants learned novel words in speech condition but all three age groups failed to learn a novel word in singing condition. The results of Experiment 1 suggested mixed effects of IDSing on word learning. The higher pitch would attract infants’ attention and slower speaking rate might be helpful to phonetic processing. However, the acoustic features of lexical tones are distorted in IDSing, which is unfavorable to lexical tone perception. Experiment 2 revealed that IDSpeech might be better than IDSing to facilitate word learning. In conclusion, results of both experiments implicated that IDSing seems not to have any great effects on word learning to infants younger than two years of age.
Subjects
infant-directed singing
children song
acoustic analysis
word learning
language development
Type
thesis
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