Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA.
Infancy. 2023 Jul-Aug;28(4):738-753. doi: 10.1111/infa.12543. Epub 2023 Apr 25.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many children receive language input through face coverings. The impact of face coverings for children's abilities to understand language remains unclear. Past research with monolingual children suggests that hearing words through surgical masks does not disrupt word recognition, but hearing words through transparent face shields proves more challenging. In this study, we investigated effects of different face coverings (surgical masks and transparent face shields) on language comprehension in bilingual children. Three-year-old English-Mandarin bilingual children (N = 28) heard familiar words in both English and Mandarin spoken through transparent face shields, surgical masks, and without masks. When tested in English, children recognized words presented without a mask and through a surgical mask, but did not recognize words presented with transparent face shields, replicating past findings with monolingual children. In contrast, when tested in Mandarin, children recognized words presented without a mask, through a surgical mask, and through a transparent face shield. Results are discussed in terms of specific properties of English and Mandarin that may elicit different effects for transparent face shields. Overall, the present findings suggest that face coverings, and in particular, surgical masks do not disrupt spoken word recognition in young bilingual children.
由于 COVID-19 大流行，许多儿童通过口罩接受语言输入。口罩对面罩下儿童理解语言能力的影响尚不清楚。过去针对单语儿童的研究表明，通过手术口罩听单词不会干扰单词识别，但通过透明面罩听单词则更具挑战性。在这项研究中，我们研究了不同口罩（手术口罩和透明面罩）对面罩下双语儿童语言理解的影响。我们对 28 名 3 岁的英语-普通话双语儿童进行了测试，他们听到了通过透明面罩、手术口罩和不戴口罩用英语和普通话说出的熟悉单词。当用英语进行测试时，儿童识别出不戴口罩和通过手术口罩呈现的单词，但无法识别出通过透明面罩呈现的单词，这与过去针对单语儿童的研究结果一致。相比之下，当用普通话进行测试时，儿童识别出不戴口罩、通过手术口罩和通过透明面罩呈现的单词。结果根据英语和普通话的特定属性进行了讨论，这些属性可能对面罩产生不同的影响。总体而言，本研究结果表明，口罩，尤其是手术口罩不会干扰年幼的双语儿童的口语识别。
