LINGUIST List 25.366
Wed
Jan 22 2014
Diss: Sociolinguistics:
Beck: 'The Role of Socio-indexical Information in
Regional Accent Perception ...'
Editor for this issue:
Xiyan Wang <xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 21-Jan-2014
From: Erica Beck
<ericalynnbeck
gmail.com>
Subject: The Role of
Socio-indexical Information in Regional Accent
Perception by Five to Seven Year Old
Children
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Institution: University of Michigan
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Erica Beck
Dissertation Title: The Role of Socio-indexical
Information in Regional Accent Perception by
Five to Seven Year Old Children
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Dissertation Director:
Carmel O'Shannessy
Susan Gelman
Robin Queen
Marlyse Baptista
Dissertation Abstract:
This study examines whether five-seven-year-old
children's awareness of
regional variation influences their perception
of regional phonological
variation. It also examines the role exposure
to variation plays in the
development of perception and awareness in
young children. Participants
were 66 children aged 5-7 years, all raised in
the same town near
Philadelphia, USA. The participants included
monolingual, bilingual and
bi-dialectal children, as well as children
speaking a minority ethnolect. A
comparison of results from each of these groups
provides information on how
early exposure to different kinds of social
variation influences perception
of regional variation at this age.
The first task of the study was an ABX task,
testing children's ability to
discriminate between accents acoustically, with
no reference to accents or
geography. The second task was also a
discrimination task, but encouraged
children to consider the socioindexical meaning
of the accents during
discrimination, by asking participants to
choose the speaker who sounded
most similar to their own speech. The stimuli
used in these two tasks
contrasted the local regional accent of the
children's hometown with an
unfamiliar regional accent, Southern U.S.
English. The third task of the
study was the Awareness Task, which comprised
of a series of questions
assessing children's awareness about regional
variation and their ability
to identify the specific accents used in the
study.
The results of the two discrimination tasks
were analyzed for correlations
with responses to the Awareness Task. In
addition, extensive background
data on each subject's language and family
residential history was
collected and analyzed for effects on their
responses to the three
experimental tasks.
The results of the study show that 5-7 year old
children from all language
backgrounds represented in this study reliably
discriminate between
regional accents of their native language. The
results of the Awareness
Task indicate that they are forming a general
understanding of the social
meaning of regional variation: the majority are
able to identify the
regional accent of their hometown, and half can
identify the unfamiliar
accent as non-local. Furthermore, approximately
40% of subjects correctly
attribute the difference between the stimuli
speakers to regional
variation. The awareness represented by
responses to these questions show
varying patterns of correlations with responses
to the discrimination
tasks, depending on the child's native dialect,
ethnolect or language.
Taken together, this study shows that regional
variation is perceptually
salient to five- and six-year-old children and
that they are developing the
ability to interpret regional variation for
social meaning about speakers.
Furthermore, language background is shown to
not have an effect on the
ability to discriminate between accents nor on
overall awareness of
regional variation in their hometown for
children at this age.
Page Updated: 22-Jan-2014