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Early childhood language memory in the speech perception of international adoptees*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2009

JANET S. OH ,
TERRY KIT-FONG AU  and
SUN-AH JUN
JANET S. OH*
Affiliation:
California State University, Northridge
TERRY KIT-FONG AU
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
SUN-AH JUN
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
*
Address for correspondence: Janet Oh, Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8255. e-mail: janetoh@alum.pomona.edu
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Abstract

It is as yet unclear whether the benefits of early linguistic experiences can be maintained without at least some minimal continued exposure to the language. This study compared 12 adults adopted from Korea to the US as young children (all but one prior to age one year) to 13 participants who had no prior exposure to Korean to examine whether relearning can aid in accessing early childhood language memory. All 25 participants were recruited and tested during the second week of first-semester college Korean language classes. They completed a language background questionnaire and interview, a childhood slang task and a Korean phoneme identification task. Results revealed an advantage for adoptee participants in identifying some Korean phonemes, suggesting that some components of early childhood language memory can remain intact despite many years of disuse, and that relearning a language can help in accessing such a memory.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , November 2010 , pp. 1123 - 1132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

[*]

This work was supported by a grant from the University of Hong Kong (Au). The preparation of this paper was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Oh). We would like to thank Rich Lee, Hangtae Cho, Kim Park Gregg, Marissa Weyer, Sahyang Kim, Timothy Arbisi-Kelm and Kate Bell for their help with this study. These data were presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, November 2008.

References

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