A Comparative Study of the Speech Development of Japanese and American Children (Part Four) : The Beginning of Phonemicization Process

Abstract

We recorded the speech sounds of nine Japanese and three American infants in Japan and two American infants in the U.S.A., all of whom were between the ages of ten and twenty-two months. We then compared the beginning periods of the phenemicization process of the three groups. During the first several months of the second year, the infant, through his effort to express sounds, begins to notice some kind of symbolic relationship between words and the world and he acquires one kind of learning set to use words in reference to what he wants to express. The infant then begins to develop his phenemicization process. We think that the middle several months of the second year are the beginning period of the phonemicization process. During this period, phonemes and words uttered by the child increase in number, but even at the end of the period, phonemes are not articulated differentiatedly and words are not always used correctly. Most of the words he utters are names of objects. But by the end of this period, he begins to use some words which represent the objects' place and position and to construct a few two- or three-words-sentences. Although before this period, as a means of expression, he uses bodily expressions with or without speech sounds, during this period he begins to use speech sounds but not necessarily with bodily expression. Before this period in all sorts of situations he utters word sounds and meaningless sounds with various articulatory forms, but during this period he does this very little. There are individual differences. In one case this period begins at the age of eighteen months, and in another case it begins at fifteen months. We do not find significant differences among the three groups, except that the group of American infants in Japan shows slow developmental process as other bilinguals do.