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Accelerating language learning in young children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Froma P. Roth
Froma P. Roth
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Abstract

To examine the effects of direct intervention on language learning, 18 children ranging in age from 3;6 to 4;6 were systematically taught linguistic structures still beyond their developmental grasp. Four types of relative clause sentences were trained, using a toy manipulation task. Solid improvement was found in the performance of subjects in the two experimental conditions between the Pre- and Post-test Phases. No significant improvement was demonstrated by the control condition subjects. This successful outcome is viewed as demonstrating that the language learning process is somewhat independent of cognitive development. In addition, error response analyses indicated that the First Noun strategy accounted for the majority of errors, providing support for the canonical–sentoid hypothesis.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1984 , pp. 89 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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