Preschoolers benefit from sentential context in familiar- and unfamiliar-accented speech

Abstract

To learn the meaning of a new word, or to recognize the meaning of a known one, both children and adults benefit from surrounding words, or the sentential context. Most of the evidence from children is based on their accuracy and efficiency when listening to speech in their familiar native accent: they successfully use the words they know to identify other words' referents. Here, we assess how accurately and efficiently 4-year-old children use sentential context to identify referents of known and novel nouns in unfamiliar-accented speech, as compared to familiar-accented speech. In a looking-while-listening task, children showed considerable success in processing unfamiliar-accented speech. Children robustly mapped known nouns produced in an unfamiliar accent to their target referents rather than novel competitors, and they used informative surrounding verbs (e.g., "You can eat the dax") to identify the referents of both known and novel nouns-although there was a processing cost for unfamiliar-accented speech in some cases. This demonstrates that 4-year-olds successfully and rapidly process unfamiliar-accented speech by recruiting the same strategies available to them in familiar-accented speech, revealing impressive flexibility in word recognition and word learning across diverse linguistic environments. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We examined 4-year-old children's accuracy and processing efficiency in comprehending known and novel nouns embedded in sentences produced in familiar-accented or unfamiliar-accented speech. Children showed limited processing costs for unfamiliar-accented speech and mapped known words to their referents even when these were produced in unfamiliar-accented speech. Children used known verbs to predict the referents of upcoming nouns in both familiar- and unfamiliar-accented speech, but processing costs were evident for unfamiliar-accented speech. Thus, the strategies that support children's word comprehension and word learning in familiar-accented speech are available to them in unfamiliar accents as well.

Keywords: accents; language development; linguistic diversity; looking‐while‐listening; processing efficiency; sentential context.

Figure 1.

One representative stimulus set for each Trial Type (Neutral, Informative, Novel). Images appeared in silence for 2s; then children heard the sentence. Approximately 3s after the first sentence ended, children heard a prompt (e.g., “Can you see it?”). After the prompt, images remained on the screen in silence for 2s.

Figure 2.

Aggregate proportion of looking to the target after verb onset for each trial type in Unfamiliar-and Familiar-Accent conditions. On all trial types, looking to the target was significantly above chance (.25), ps < .0001. Horizontal lines indicate median values. Vertical lines represent range of values.

Figure 3.

Average reaction time (from onset of disambiguating word) for gaze shifts from a distractor to the target. On Neutral trials, reaction time is calculated after noun onset. On Informative and Novel trials, reaction time is calculated after verb onset. On Informative trials, gaze shifts to the target were slower in the Unfamiliar-Accent than the Familiar-Accent condition, p = .001.

Figure 4.

Time-course data of looking to target in Familiar- and Unfamiliar-Accent conditions. Differences between Neutral and Informative trials emerged between 800 ms to 1900 ms and 600 ms to 1700 ms in Familiar-Accent and Unfamiliar-Accent conditions, respectively, as indicated by the gray-shaded regions. Colored shaded regions represent SEM for each trial type.