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2007/05/24
Based on earlier reporting by Health Day News
Speaker's facial expressions tell the tale, study suggests
Infants can tell the difference between two languages without hearing the spoken words, simply by watching the face of the adult who is talking, a study at the University of British Columbia reveals.
"It is important, because it tells us how babies are prepared to learn multiple languages," said Whitney Weikum, a neural science researcher in UBC.
The study results were pubished in the May 25 issue of the journal Science.
Weikum had three groups of infants, ages 4, 6 and 8 months, from bilingual Canadian homes watch silent video clips of an adult speaking either French or English.
"The baby watches the screen and sees the faces of the people talking," Weikum said. "When the baby's looking time declines, the computer switches and starts a clip of an adult talking the other language. The baby notices the switch and starts watching the screen again."
That ability to tell the difference can diminish over time, depending on what languages are spoken in the home, the study found. Eight-month-old babies from bilingual French-English homes would return their attention to the screen when the language was changed. But the ability to tell the difference was lost at about 8 months of age by babies from homes where only one language was spoken.