[B-Greek] Intensive Greek Refresher course

Nigel Chapman nigel at chapman.id.au
Sun Mar 13 10:02:32 EDT 2011


On Mon, March 14, 2011 12:40 am, Benjamin Pehrson wrote:

> 7) Quickly moving to examples.

I read recently [via Slashdot] of a researcher who recorded the first
90,000 hours of his son's life and then mapped out the development of his
language from that data; word usage by the child and any others present
was 'tagged' for later pattern analysis.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1733627/mit-scientist-captures-his-sons-first-90000-hours-on-video

One of the interesting findings -- though obvious once you think about it
-- was how quickly the child's first attempts to say any particular word
were reinforced with simple examples by the adults present.

> Most moving of all was the precise mapping of tight feedback
> loops between the child and his caregivers—father, mother, nanny.
> For example, Roy was able to track the length of every sentence
> spoken to the child in which a particular word--like “water”--
> was included. Right around the time the child started to say the
> word, what Roy calls the “word birth,” something remarkable
> happened.
>
> “Caregiver speech dipped to a minimum and slowly ascended back out
> in complexity.” In other words, when mom and dad and nanny first
> hear a child speaking a word, they unconsciously stress it by
> repeating it back to him all by itself or in very short sentences.
> Then as he gets the word, the sentences lengthen again. The infant
> shapes the caregivers’ behavior, the better to learn.

Nigel.

-- 
Nigel Chapman, Sydney AU

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strange police." -- Clarence Day



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