It is simpler for elementary school children to pick up new words from other kids who speak with different accents if they are accustomed to a variety of regional and foreign accents because they hear them frequently in their linguistic environment. The research findings of Assistant Professor Dr. Adriana Hanulková and Helena Levy from the University of Freiburg‘s German Department demonstrate this. According to Hanulková, an assistant professor of language and cognition, “contrary to previous studies, it is not necessarily bilingual children who perform better in vocabulary acquisition, but children who are exposed to diverse accents most frequently.” The two linguists created a cutting-edge virtual and game-based design for their study. The journal Language Learning recently published their findings.
Card game “Spot It!” as the foundation
Studies on the impact of regional and foreign accents on children’s word learning have been lacking, according to Hanulkova. The researchers used a computer game based on the well-known card game “Spot It!,” also known as “Dobble” in Germany, to close this gap by having 88 Freiburg kids between the ages of seven and eleven play it. Two identical objects on different playing cards must be found and named as soon as possible in the game. Children participated in the study by playing the game online with fictitious peers. German was either spoken in its native form or with a Swiss or Hebrew accent. Six words that kids in elementary school don’t usually know were added to the game.
Regional accents help
The 88 study participants, some of whom were bilingual or multilingual, all spoke German. The frequency of local and foreign accents each child hears each week was another question the researchers asked. The results of the experiment indicated that children who had a long history of exposure to different accents were better off; in this virtual game environment, children with this experience were better able to pick up new words from other kids who also spoke with different accents.
Children hearing both regional and foreign accents in their daily lives had a particular impact on this effect. Children who had exposure to foreign accents demonstrated effects that were similar to those of exposure to regional accents, at least in terms of tendency. The dual language had no corresponding impact.
Experiment resembles natural learning
Hanulková argues that more research is required to fully understand which experiences in children’s vocabulary acquisition have which effects and how they might differ from adult learners of new words. The study’s brand-new, game-based design is an especially useful tool for this, according to her. While playing, children learn from other kids rather than from adults, who have been the subject of almost all studies to date. Children must also actively use these words in conversation rather than just passively recognizing them. The experimental design thus resembles learning that occurs naturally in daily life.
Notes:
- The Gerda Henkel Foundation helped pay for the study through the DFG Research Training Group 1624 “Frequency Effects in Language” at the University of Freiburg and the Academic Society of Freiburg.
- Adriana Hanulková is an assistant professor of language and cognition at the University of Freiburg’s German Department. Her areas of interest in research include multilingualism, language variation, diversity, and variability, as well as language processing across the lifespan. The University of Freiburg’s German Department has received Helena Levy’s PhD thesis.
