Faes Jolien, Gillis Joris, Gillis Steven
University of Antwerp.
J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2017 Jul 1;22(3):290-302. doi: 10.1093/deafed/enx017.
The frequency of occurrence of words and sounds has a pervasive influence on typically developing children's language acquisition. For instance, highly frequent words appear earliest in a child's lexicon, and highly frequent phonemes are produced more accurately. This study evaluates (a) whether word frequency influences word accuracy and (b) whether this is also the case for children with a history of auditory deprivation. More specifically, the influence of word frequency on phonemic accuracy is examined in deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI), and compared to age-matched children with typical hearing, between word onset and age 7. Results show that highly frequent words are produced more accurately, except for words in the highest frequency regions (i.e., predominantly closed-class words). This effect is more pronounced in children with typical hearing when compared with children with CI. Thus, children with CI are sensitive to word frequency, but to a lesser extent than peers with typical hearing.
词汇和语音的出现频率对正常发育儿童的语言习得有着广泛影响。例如，高频词汇最早出现在儿童的词汇表中，高频音素的发音也更准确。本研究评估了：（a）词汇频率是否影响词汇准确性；（b）有听觉剥夺史的儿童是否也是如此。更具体地说，研究考察了词汇频率对接受人工耳蜗植入（CI）的聋儿音素准确性的影响，并将其与年龄匹配的听力正常儿童在单词起始阶段至7岁之间进行比较。结果表明，除了最高频率区域的词汇（即主要是封闭类词汇）外，高频词汇的发音更准确。与接受人工耳蜗植入的儿童相比，这种效应在听力正常的儿童中更为明显。因此，接受人工耳蜗植入的儿童对词汇频率敏感，但程度低于听力正常的同龄人。
