Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA 91330-8255, USA.
J Child Lang. 2010 Nov;37(5):1123-32. doi: 10.1017/S0305000909990286. Epub 2009 Dec 2.
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.
目前尚不清楚，如果没有至少一些最低限度的持续接触语言，早期语言经验的益处是否能够保持。本研究比较了 12 名从小（除一人外，均在一岁前）被韩国收养到美国的成年人和 13 名没有韩语接触经历的参与者，以检验重新学习是否有助于获取早期儿童语言记忆。所有 25 名参与者均在大学韩语第一学期的第二周被招募并接受测试。他们完成了一份语言背景问卷和访谈、一项儿童俚语任务和一项韩语语音识别任务。结果显示，在识别某些韩语语音方面，被收养者参与者具有优势，这表明尽管多年未使用，早期儿童语言记忆的某些成分仍能保持完整，并且重新学习一门语言可以帮助获取这种记忆。
