妈妈语的动态调整与儿童语言发展的关系

Dynamic Adjustment of Motherese and Children's Language Development

妈妈语指照料者(主要是母亲)与1至5岁孩子交流时所用的简化语言,是儿童早期语言习得的主要输入形式。本研究运用个案研究和微变化研究方法,观察和记录真实环境中一位母亲和其3岁零3个月孩子的20个对话片段,从语音、语速、语调、情景、语义、句法等方面分析妈妈语的调整状况和可理解性,结果发现妈妈语的调整并非刻意,而是为了使孩子能更好地理解母亲话语和提高亲子交流的有效性;通过动态调整妈妈语从易到难,循序渐进地为幼儿提供可理解的语言输入;相对于其他形式的语言输入,妈妈语体现的这种动态调整更加精准、自然、真实,这使得妈妈语不仅是最佳的语言输入形式,而且是母子持续交流的助推器和孩子习得目标语言形式的操练场,可以促进孩子经历感知—认知—内化—运用的语言发展轨迹,实现语言的快速生长。孩子的主要照料者应能根据孩子的语言学习能力及认知水平向其输出符合孩子个性的语言,并适时调整以增强语言的可理解性,同时还应选择略高于孩子当前能力的语言形式,建立挑战儿童当前认知水平的语言学习系统和利于双方交流的互动模式,从而促使儿童的语言得到更好的发展。

Motherese refers to the comforting and simplified language when the caregivers （mainly mothers） communicate with their children from one to five years old. It is the main input form for early child language acquisition. This paper conducted a case study with micro-genesis research method on the basis of observation and records of a mother＇s 20 conversations with her 39-month-old baby boy. It was found that Motherese is made comprehensible by the mother＇s adjusting the pronunciation, intonation, speech rate, vocabulary, semantic meaning and syntactic; Motherese adjustment was not intentional, but for the purpose of getting through and improving the smooth conversation and upgrading the effectiveness of the communication. Motherese, tailored to individual baby＇s needs, is often more natural and authentic in comparison with other forms of language input, which proves motherese is not only the optional input for baby＇s language growtb, but the prompter for longer, smoother conversation, and the rehearsal venue for the target language forms and skills. Caregivers should be conscious of the babies＇ present language level and try to adjust their speech to the individuals＇ needs and enhance the comprehensibility of their language output. However, at the same time they should also choose to converse with the babies with language forms a little higher than their present level, which would be challenging appropriately to promote the babies＇ language development.