■ Before Vou Read

A. Co nne ct wit h the topic. Do you thin

k the se stat em ent s abo ut lan gua ges
and language lear nin g are true or false? Che
ck (✓) you r ideas.
True False
ı. Mid dle sch ool is the bes t tim e to beg
in lea rnin g □ O
a new language.
2. Watching television is a goo d way for
a bab y to □ O
lear n a language.
3. It is con fus ing for a chi ld to lea rn two
languages O O
at the sam e time.
4. Scientists can t explain how peo ple lea
rn the ir □ O
first language.
5. All languages have the sam e num ber of
sou nds. ·□ O
B. Pair work. Com par e answers with a par
tner. Ho w ma ny of you r ans wer s
are the same?

C. Preview the reading. Skim the article

on pages 33- 35 to com ple te the
Previewing Ch art below.
• • ; • ' :·. , -
Prev1evv1ngChart , . \ :ı.,'

,,.. ·_,. '. · ·. :: ... » '. '••< : ·

:, -:- :• • . . • .• ' : .. ' ı;

• • • •• ....
., ._ 1 . , , f • 1• • • • ·_:
-.. •

1. Titl e of the reading: _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _ _ __
2. Names of peo ple and places in 3. l<ey words. (What wor ds app ear
the reading. (List 2 more.) several times? List 5 mor e.)
University of Washington's fnstitute research
for Learning and Brain Scienas

4. Read the headings and the fırst sen

tence in each paragraph. Wh at do
you thinl< the reading is pro bab ly abo
ut?
 AUDl0
Reading Passage DOWNLOAD

!Babies Prove Sound Learners

by Emily Sohn
from Science News

It can be hard to know what newborns want. They

can't talk, walk, or even point at what they're thinking
about. Yet babies begin to develop language skills
long before they begin speaking, according to recent
s research. And, compared to adults, they develop these
skills quickly. People have a tough time learning new
languages as they grow older, but infants have the
abilicy to learn any language, even fake 1 ones, easily.
For a long time scientists have struggled to
ıo explain how such young children can learn the
complicated grammatical rules and sounds required
to communicate in words. Now, researchers are
getting a better idea of what's happening in the brains
of sociecy's tiniest language learners. The insights might eventually help
ıs kids with learning disabilities as well as adults who want to learn new
languages. The work might even help scientists who are trying to design
computers that can communicate like people do. "The brain of the baby
is a new frontier;' 2 says Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Universicy of
Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.
20 The Learning Process
For decades scientists have debated how the brains of young children
fıgure out how to communicate using language. With help from new
technologies and research strategies, scientists are now finding that babies
begin life with the ability to learn any language. By interacting with other
2s people and using their superb listening and watching skills, they quickly
master the specific languages they hear most often.
"The [baby] brain is really flexible;' says Rebecca Gomez, an
experimental psychologist at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Babies
"can't say much, but they're learning a lot:' Kuhl's research, for example,
30 suggests that the progression from babbles like "gaga" to actual words Culture and
lilce "good morning" begins with the ability to tel1 the difference between Language Notes
simple sounds, such as "ga;' "ba;' and "da:' Such studies show that, up to page 144

1 fake not real

2 a new frontier an unexplored area

33
 up
ut six mo nth s of age , bab ies can recognize all the sou nds tha t ma ke
abo
ability to do tha t shows tha t [babies]
all the Janguages in the world. "Th eir call the m
35 are pre par ed to lea rn any
lan gua ge; ' Kuhl says. "That's wh y we
'citizens of the world:"
guages spo ken aro und the globe,
Ab out 6,000 sou nds ma ke up the lan
nd. For example, wh ile the Swedish
bu t no t eve ry lan gua ge uses eve ry sou
gua ge dis tin gui she s am ong 16 vow el sou nds , English uses onl y eig ht
1an y the sou nds
40 vowel sou nds , and Jap ane
se uses jus t five. Adults can hea r onl
ntly. To a native Japanese speaker,
use d in the lan gua ges the y spe ak flue
sou nd identical. So, unl ike som eon e
for ins tan ce, the lett ers "R" and ''L''
Japanese spe ake r can not tel1 "row"
wh ose nat ive Ian gua ge is English, a
fro m "Iow" or "rake" fro m "lake."
rtin g at aro und six mo nth s old , Kuhl says, a baby's bra in focuses on
45 Sta y
Then, chi ldr en beg ip res pon din g onl
the mo st com mo n sou nds it hears. z
hea r the most. In a sim ilar way, Go me
to the sou nds of the Ianguage the y
recognizing the pat ter ns tha t ma ke
has fou nd, slightly old er babies sta rt
In English, for example, kid s wh o
up the rul es of the ir native Ianguage. g" or
are abo ut 18 mo nth s old sta rt to figure out tha t wo rds end ing in "-in
50
bs are action words.
"-e d" are usu ally verbs, and tha t ver
La ngu age on the Brain
ent ists are par ticu lar ly inte res ted in the bra~ns of peo ple wh o spe ak
Sci
n one Ian gua ge flu ent ly bec aus e tha t skill is har d to acq uir e after
mo re tha
dies, for example, native Ma nda rin
55 abo ut age seven. In one of Kuhl's stu
nin e-m ont h-o ld Am eri can babies for
Ch ine se spe ake rs spo ke Ch ine se to
h session lasted abo ut 25 minutes. At
twelve sessions ove r fou r weeks. Eac
babies res pon ded to Ma nda rin sou nds
the end of the study, the Am eri can
as wel l as did Ch ine se bab ies wh o had bee n hea rin g the language the ir
jus t
ers and adults wo uld not per for m
60 ent ire lives. (En glis h-s pea kin g teenag
nea rly as well.)
, her bra in forms a ditferent
If a chi ld regularly hea rs two languages
, onc e the bra in solidifies those
pat hw ay for each Ianguage. However
und age seven, it gets har der to for m
electrical language p·athways by aro
dis pos ed of, 3 or pru ned , all the
65 new ones. By the n, a baby's bra in has
ece ssa ry con nec tio ns tha t the inf ant was bor n with. So, if you don't
unn
stu dyi ng Spa nis h or Ru ssia n unt il mid dle school, you mu st struggle
sta rt
and progress can be frustrating.
aga ins t years of bra in dev elo pm ent ,
rk mu ch har der to forge la~guage
A twelve-year-old's bra in has to wo
s. "We oug ht to be learnıng new
70 con nec tio ns tha n an infant's bra in doe '
en, wh en the bra in does it nat ura lly;
languages bet we en ages zero and sev
Kuhl says.

nmt 'cl of l.!Ol t t'n rid of

 Learning from the Baby Brain
For teenagers and adults who want to learn new languages, baby studies
75 may offer some useful tips. For one thing, researchers have found that
it is far better for a language learner to talk with people who speak the
language than to rely on educational CDs and DVDs with recorded
conversations. When infants watched someone speaking a foreign
language on TV, Kuhl found, they had a completely different experience
80 than they did if they watched the same speaker in real life. With real
speakers, the babies' brains lit up with electrical activity when they heard
the sounds they had learned. "The babies were looking at the TV, and they
seemed mesmerized;' 4 Kuhl says. Learning, however, did not happen.
"There was nothing going on in their brains;' she says. "Absolutely
85 nothing:'

~ Word Count: 883 Reading Time: _ __ Words per Minute: _ __

\ (Minutes) (Word Count/Reading Time)

1
After You Read
Understanding the Text
A. Comprehension
For each item below, fili in the correct circle.
1. Scanning for Details Patricia Kuhl calls babies "citizens of the world"
because _.
® all babies are alike
® we are beginning to learn more about the brains ofbabies
© babies can hear the sounds of all languages
® b~bies can tel1 the difference between simple sounds and actual words
2. Scanning for Details According to the reading, which of the following
statements is not true about babies?
® They have the ability to learn any language.
® Their brains create a different pathway for each language they hear.
© They learn languages by listening to and watching people.
® By the time they are nine months old, they can no longer hear the
sounds of all languages.

4 mesmerized hypnotized; fascinated

 3. Understanding Pronoun References The word they in line 25 refers to __.
® skills ® languages © people ® babies
4. Using Context The verb figure out in line 22 is closest in meaning to __.
® learn ® forget © explain ® help
5. Using Coııtext The word forge in line 69 is closest in meaning to __.
® recognize ® study © make ® require

6. Making Inferences It may be concluded that a native English speaker

would have trouble learning Swedish because _ .
® English has more vowel sounds than Swedjsh
® he or she wouldn't be able to hear all of the vowel sounds in Swedish
© the vowel sounds in Swedish would all sound the same
@ all of the vowel sounds in Swedish would sound unfamiliar

8. Vocabulary: Word Forms

Look back over the reading to find the missing word forms in the chart below.

1. tlexibility tlex

2. development developmental

3. differ

4. response responsive

S. grammar

6. experiment experiment

7. connect connected

C. Consider the lssues

·Work with a partner to answer the questions below.
ı. What did you learn about the brains of babies from the article? List 3 facts.

2. In what order do these events happen in the lives ofbabies? Number them
from 1 to 4.
_ They start to recognize grammatical patterns in the languages they hear.
_ The brain solidifies the language pathways in the brain.
_ _ They can recognize all the sounds in all the languages in the world.
Their brains start to foc us on the most common sounds they hear.
3. Some parents play foreign language CDs to their young children. Based
on the information in this reading, do you think this is useful?

36 Chapter 4 1 Learning to Speal<

Building Vocabulary
Understanding Connecting Words
Writers use special words and phrases to connect ideas in a text. For the
reader, these words are like signposts; they signal the type of information
that is coming next. in this way, connecting words help the reader to
follow the writer's ideas.
1
Connecting Words Purpose EKample
for example signals that Adults can hear only the
for instance an example is sounds used in the languages
like coming next t4ey speak fluently. To a
such as native Japanese speaker, for
for one thing instance, the letters "R" and
'T' sound identical.
however signals that the They can't talk, walk, or
yet next sentence even point at what they are
but contrasts with thinking about. Yet babies
whatcame begin to develop language
before skills long before they begin
speaking.
so signals the result By age seven, a child
of something has disposed of ali the
mentioned unnecessary conn~ctions that
before it was bom with. So, if you
don't start studying Spanish
until middle school, it will be
1
!
harder to learn it.

A. Complete each sentence below with the correct connecting word.

ı. The Japanese language has only five vowel sounds, _ _ _ _ the
Swedish language has 16. (so / but)
2. Children start to figure out the grammar ofa language by the age of
two. _____, an English-speaking child may understand that verbs
are action words. (however / for instance)
3. Babies can hear the sounds of all languages in the world, _____
they are prepared to learn any language. (so / for example)
4. When babies were watching someone speaking a foreign language
on TV, they seemed to be listening carefully. _ _ _ _ , researchers
found that there was no electrical activity in their brains.
(for example / however)

37