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Frontiers in Educational Research, 2021, 4(3); doi: 10.25236/FER.2021.040314.

Preschooler’s Lexical Trajectory: The Impact of Parental Input and Linguistic Environment at Home

Author(s)

Yanling Cai

Corresponding Author:
Yanling Cai
Affiliation(s)

University International College, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China

Abstract

Children’s English vocabulary acquisition is a process of dynamic and fluid emergence as a result of various stimuli in communicative settings. The paper identifies 5 family variables related to child’s lexical trajectory, namely, the linguistic environment at home, children’s relative exposure to the input, quality of child-directed speech (CDS), frequency of parental input and parent-child interaction. Each family variable contributes uniquely to children’s words learning, among which a highly supportive linguistic learning environment is fundamental for children to accumulate more vocabularies and has a significantly positive impact on children’s vocabulary ability. This paper highlights the importance of targeting children’s learning environment in early years as children’s vocabulary acquisition is a strong predictor of later emergent literacy. 

Keywords

Child-directed Speech (CDS), Linguistic Exposure, Parental Input, Parent-child Interaction, Lexical Development

Cite This Paper

Yanling Cai. Preschooler’s Lexical Trajectory: The Impact of Parental Input and Linguistic Environment at Home. Frontiers in Educational Research (2021) Vol. 4, Issue 3: 69-74. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2021.040314.

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