NUS study: Languages and dialects heard in infancy are never really forgotten
September 5, 2019
What are the effects of exposing children to languages and dialects during infancy?
A recent study by NUS researchers led by Associate Professor Leher Singh (NUS Department of Psychology), “The impact of foreign language caregiving on native language acquisition” (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2019), showed that a language or dialect heard during infancy is never really forgotten later in life and that such early exposure does not affect the child’s subsequent acquisition of English. The study involved 34 Singaporean Chinese participants aged 19 to 22, where half of them were exposed to Hokkien by their caregivers from birth while the rest were only exposed to English.
Termed as the “ghost in the brain” effect, the study found that languages acquired early occupy a “special place in your brain” which can be reactivated under the right circumstances even after neglecting them. Indeed, participants who had early Hokkien exposure were more sensitive to Hokkien tonal phonology and better able to acquire new Hokkien vocabulary after familiarising themselves with the dialect again.
Furthermore, it was revealed that early exposure of Hokkien did not delay or impede the participants’ development in learning English. Both groups showed similar levels of proficiency in areas of phonological, semantic, and grammatical knowledge. A/P Singh said that these results can be extended to other dialects or spoken languages like Mandarin.
Beyond the study, A/P Singh describes the ages 0 to 3 as a “fertile time” for conversation between children and their caregivers. She cautions caregivers not to replace this critical period for language acquisition with the use of more technological devices such that it leads to less engagement and communication.