Rationale
We know that children must hear language and communicate in order to successfully acquire language. However, it is unclear how short-term experiences with linguistic input contributes to their longer-term language learning. Investigating the roles of sentence comprehension and production in developing syntactic abilities can clarify which aspects of short-term learning are most relevant to long term-learning. The findings could be used to elaborate theories and models of language acquisition and help promote children’s successful language development.
Aims & objectives
We aim to explore possible mechanisms for language learning by investigating how children’s immediate experiences of syntax lead to long-term learning of syntactic structures. To achieve this, we will examine:
- How experience-based syntactic learning varies across different language structures and ages
- The timecourse of experience-based learning effects
- The extent to which experience-based learning generalises across linguistic and non-linguistic contexts
Project details
The project is comprised of 3 strands whereby we will conduct a series of psycholinguistic experiments in which children will interact with an adult experimenter to comprehend and produce sentences. To explore learning effects, we will explore the relationship between short- and long-term use of different structures.
