Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:26:08.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Perception and production in child phonology: the testing of four hypotheses *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Mary Louise Edwards
Mary Louise Edwards
Affiliation:
Scottish Rite Institute for Childhood Aphasia, Palo Alto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Perception and production data were collected from 28 children, ages 1; 8 to 3; 11, to test four specific hypotheses on the acquisition of initial fricatives and glides in English, based on the assumptions that perception precedes production and unmarked precedes marked. Perception data were collected by the Shvachkin-Garnica technique for ‘phonemic perception’. Pairs of objects are given nonsense names, CVCs differing only in the initial sound; the child is asked to perform certain actions with the named objects and if he is correct on 7 out of 10 trials he is assumed to have demonstrated phonemic perception of the opposition in question. Production data were compared to the perception data. Results only partially confirm the hypotheses and indicate that (a) children as late as age 3; 0 do not have complete phonemic perception, (b) phonemic perception develops gradually, generally in advance of production, and (c) the order of acquisition shows trends toward uniformity but is not universal.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , November 1974 , pp. 205 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ferguson, C. A. (1973). Fricatives in child language acquisition. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 6. 61–85.Google Scholar
Garnica, O. K. (1971). The development of the perception of phonemic differences in initial consonants by English-speaking children: a pilot study. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 3. 1–29.Google Scholar
Garnica, O. K. (1973). The development of phonemic speech perception. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York & London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1968). Child language, aphasia and phonological universals. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, R. & Halle, M. (1956). Fundamentals of language. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Menn, L. (1973). Note on the acquisition of affricates and fricatives. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 6. 87–95.Google Scholar
Menyuk, P. & Anderson, S. (1969). Children's identification and reproduction of /w/, /r/, and /I/. JSHR 5. 39–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moskowitz, A. I. (1970). The two-year-old stage in the acquisition of English phonology. Lg 46. 424–41.Google Scholar
Shvachkin, N. Kh. (1973). The development of phonemic speech perception in early childhood. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Zlatin, M. A. & Koenigsknecht, R. A. (1971). A preliminary investigation of voice onset time as a variable in perception and production of word-initial voiced and voiceless stop consonants in two-year-old and six-year-old children. Paper read at the American Speech and Hearing Association Convention, Chicago.Google Scholar