Child-Directed Speech And Vocabulary Development: A Case Study Of Chinese Children

Child Directed Speech(CDS) is a simplified register applied by the adults or children-carers when addressing to children,and it has been a topic for discussion by many Western scholars.However, parents or children-carers always use CDS unintentionally. Therefore,the research to find out whether the users of CDS are clear with the features of the register is particularly important.It is both theoretically and practically significant to explore the factors which affect CDS from the social perspective,and to investigate the proper context of CDS which can positively promote children's vocabulary development.Taking Vygotsky's socio-cultural context and Snow's input-based account of language acquisition as the analytical framework,the usage and social factors of CDS,and children's vocabulary development with the input of CDS have been investigated objectively.With the "Vocabulary Development Questionnaire for Children",156 children-carers are interviewed, and the parent's report assessment method is used.Based on the statistical result,it is found that,widely disseminating the knowledge of CDS has a significant influence:it makes the parents/children-carers standardize his/her own speech directed to children.Children will benefit from their exposure to adult speech that is both varied and rich in information about the objects and the events in the environment.Additionally,the parents who contingently respond to their young children's verbal and exploratory initiatives tend to have children with more advanced language ability.With the help of language,other capacity like cognitive capacity can develop accordingly.This research will broaden the vision of CDS,and better reveal the internal relationship of CDS and children's vocabulary development.In addition,the findings also reveal the relationship among supportive environment,interaction activity and CDS. Research on the children's language acquisition will be beneficial to our understanding of children's language development,and help us grasp the process of children's language development.The research focuses on the parents who seek to promote positive developmental outcomes in young children.The factors of the children's vocabulary development are more complex than what have been studied,and further research is necessary in the future.