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When people interact, aspects of their speech and language patterns often converge in inter- actions involving one or more languages. Most studies of speech convergence in conversations have examined monolingual interactions, whereas most studies of bilingual speech conver- gence have examined spoken responses to prompts. However, it is not uncommon in multi- lingual communities to converse in two languages, where each speaker primarily produces only one of the two languages. The present study examined complexity matching and lexical matching as two measures of speech convergence in conversations spoken in English, Spanish, or both languages. Complexity matching measured convergence in the hierarchical timing of speech, and lexical matching measured convergence in the frequency distributions of lemmas produced. Both types of matching were found equally in all three language conditions. Taken together, the results indicate that convergence is robust to monolingual and bilingual interac- tions because it stems from basic mechanisms of coordination and communication.
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Early Language Environments Predict Aspects of Explicit Language Awareness Development
Abstract Although language awareness is typically defined as the explicit understanding of language's functions and conventions, much evidence on the influence of diverse language environments on language awareness has shown implicit understandings of language. In contrast, this study examined whether exposure to linguistic diversity predicted monolingual children's explicit language awareness. We examined four aspects of children's explicit language awareness: ability to label languages, understanding of the communicative consequences of speaking different languages, understanding of labeling conventions, and awareness of their language environment. Participants were monolingual 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds (N= 81) who were from (a) a relatively linguistically homogenous community, (b) a relatively linguistically diverse community, or (c) a bilingual household in a relatively linguistically diverse community. Results suggest that community linguistic diversity and home bilingual exposure predict children's explicit language labeling and understanding of labeling conventions but not other aspects of language awareness. These findings provide insight into the role of early language environments in explicit language awareness development.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1714925
- PAR ID:
- 10456745
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Language Learning
- Volume:
- 70
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0023-8333
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 464-505
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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