Saying words out loud helps (sometimes). Experiment with four to six year old children learning words in a new language
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2016-08-22
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en
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This research aims to find out whether saying words out loud is the most favorable way for four to six your old children to learn words in a new language. In an experiment, 18 Dutch children with no knowledge of French were taught six common French words. The children heard some words only auditorily, while other words were presented auditorily, and additionally had to be repeated by the children. In the retention test after the learning phase, children were asked to say some words out loud (production) and had to identify other words (pictures) by pointing to the correct picture (perception). Results show that saying words out loud has an influence on the ability of four to six year old children to learn new words. When the retention task involves pointing to the correct picture, differences in conditions (listening vs. listening plus repeating) are not significant, but they indicate that listening plus repeating are beneficial for the children’s retention. When the retention task involves producing the words, four to six year old children struggle. Only some of them are able to do this. The results seem significant, but are hard to interpret. The differences between perception and production in the retention tasks are significant. Both the children in the perception task (pointing at a picture, either after the heard only and hear and repeat condition) scored better than the children in the production task (saying the words out loud, either after the heard only and hear and repeat condition).
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