Research methods in language acquisition: principles, procedures, and practices

307 Pages·2017·4.069 MB·Language and the human lifespan series

by  María Blume, Barbara C. Lust

María Blume and Barbara C. Lust
Research Methods in Language Acquisition
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Research Methods in Language Acquisition: Principles, Procedures, and Practices,
by M. Blume and B. Lust, with Y. Chien, C. D. Dye, C. A. Foley, and Y. Kedar
Copyright © 2017 American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.
Language and the
Human Lifespan Series
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o Bilingualism Across the Lifespan
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t Factors Moderating Language Proficiency
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N Edited by Elena Nicoladis and Simona Montanari
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t Innovative Investigations of Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder
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ci Edited by Letitia R. Naigles
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Research Methods in Language Acquisition
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c Principles, Procedures, and Practices
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i Principles, Procedures, and Practices
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h María Blume and Barbara C. Lust
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American Psychological Association • Washington, DC
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c Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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ss Names: Blume, María, author. | Lust, Barbara, 1941- author.
A Title: Research methods in language acquisition : principles, procedures, and
al practices / Maria Blume and Barbara C. Lust.
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i Description: First Edition. | Washington, DC ; Boston : American
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o Psychological Association ; Walter de Gruyter, [2017] | Series: Language
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o and the human lifespan series | Includes bibliographical references and
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c index.
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s Identifiers: LCCN 2016030001 | ISBN 9783110415223 | ISBN 3110415224
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Subjects: LCSH: Language acquisition—Research—Methodology. | Language
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a acquisition—Research—Data processing. | Language
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i acquisition—Psychological aspects—Research. | Language and
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e languages—Age differences. | Children—Language—Psychological aspects. |
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A Speech acts (Linguistics)—Research. | Psycholinguistics.

ht Classification: LCC P118.15 .B58 2017 | DDC 401/.930721—dc23
ig LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030001
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p British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
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C A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de
Printed in the United States of America and Germany
First Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/15968-000
Contents
Preface   vii
Acknowledgments   ix
Introduction   3
I Fundamentals of Language Acquisition Research
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u 1 The Challenge of Studying Language   11
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s 2 Preparing to Work With Children, Schools, and Families   29
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h 3 Creating the Data I: Working in Teams, Basic Data Collection,
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ur Data Sharing, and Data Management   49
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t II  Experimental and Observational Methods
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in Language Acquisition Research
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a 4 Studying Language Acquisition Through Collecting Speech   71
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As 5 Introduction to Experimental Methods: Design and Analysis   93

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i 6 Experimental Tasks for Generating Language Production Data   119
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h 7 Experimental Tasks for Generating Language Comprehension Data   137
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n 8 The Grammaticality Judgment Task   155
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A III  Managing and Interpreting Speech Data
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r 9 Creating the Data II: Begin Data Processing   167
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10 Creating the Data III: Preparing for Data Analysis   187
11 Interpreting the Data: Scientific Inference   211
vi   Contents
IV  Special Considerations in Language Acquisition Research
12 Assessing Multilingual Acquisition   229
13 Introduction to Infant Testing Methods in Language
Acquisition Research   247
14 Conclusions and Proceeding to the Future   259
Appendix A Transcription Symbols   271
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ti Appendix B The International Phonetic Alphabet   273
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t Appendix C Outline for Preparation of Schematic Research Proposal   275
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r Suggested Readings   277
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Index   303
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n. About the Authors   313
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Preface
This manual has grown out of years of research conducted at Cornell University in
the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab (CLAL) and research conducted by former CLAL
students subsequently in various labs across the world. Generations of students
worked to develop the lab principles and procedures described here to support and
sustain research in the area of language acquisition. The practical “hands-on tips”
are the result of many years of expertise from members of the CLAL and others in train-
ing new students and promoting peer-to-peer teaching among students, and from our
experience in building a new lab where we realized that the vast amounts of practical
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t attempt to collect such knowledge for guiding student work in a lab and helping the
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i researchers who are training students to do so. This manual may be used in conjunc-
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s tion with any overview of the field of language acquisition (e.g., Child Language: Acqui-
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d sition and Growth [Lust, 2006] or The Development of Language [Gleason & Ratner,
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e 2012]). The Articulate Mammal (Aitchison, 2011) provides a conceptual overview.
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Acknowledgments
First and foremost we want to acknowledge our contributors, Yuchin Chien, Cristina D.
Dye, Claire A. Foley, and Yarden Kedar, who graciously accepted our invitation to
contribute independent chapters and without whose expertise the manual would be
incomplete.
Creation of this manual was propelled by Tina Ogden Woetzel, whose commitment
to the scientific method and to advancing the study of language acquisition to reach
its highest possible scientific rigor forced first versions of the manual to begin to take
form years ago.
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o We are particularly indebted to the founding members of the Virtual Center for
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t Language Acquisition (VCLA), especially Suzanne Flynn at MIT, Claire Foley at Boston
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i College, Qi Wang at Cornell University, Liliana Sánchez at Rutgers University at New
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s Brunswick, Jennifer Austin at Rutgers University at Newark, and Usha Lakshmanan at
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d Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. We are also grateful for the collaboration
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e of scholars who are VCLA affiliates, including Gita Martohardjono and Isabelle Barrière
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r (City University of New York) and Sujin Yang (Ewha Womans University, South Korea).
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f Their concepts and devotion to development of the science of language acquisition
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o underlie this manual and its development.
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t Catherine Ging Reyes critically helped us shepherd the manual to completion.
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Natalia Buitrago helped to compile years of previous materials. Martha Rayas and
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n Marina Kalashnikova helped extensively on some of the chapters. Many colleagues
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t and students contributed to the Multilingualism Questionnaire (included in the online
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c materials at http://pubs.apa.org/books/supp/blume/).
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ss Finally, we are deeply and fundamentally indebted to James Gair, whose inspiration
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and insight has led us all through the years.
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c Two anonymous reviewers and especially our development editor, David Becker,
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og provided excellent advances to our manuscript.
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o Work on this manual was supported by several funding sources: “Transforming
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y the Primary Research Process Through Cybertool Dissemination: An Implementation
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of a Virtual Center for the Study of Language Acquisition,” National Science Foundation
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a grant to María Blume and Barbara Lust, 2008, NSF OCI-0753415; “Planning Grant: A
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r Virtual Center for Child Language Acquisition Research,” National Science Foundation
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A grant to Barbara Lust, 2003, NSF BCS-0126546; “Planning Information Infrastructure

ht Through a New Library–Research Partnership,” National Science Foundation Small
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i Grant for Exploratory Research to Janet McCue and Barbara Lust, 2004–2006; American
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p Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, Cornell University Einaudi Center; Cornell University
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C Faculty Innovation in Teaching Awards, Cornell Institute for Social and Economic
Research; New York State Hatch Grant; and Grant Number T32 DC00038 from the
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
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