【在生活中學習語言】《中英對照讀新聞》’Babies who hear foreign speech pick up languages faster’ 聽外國話的嬰兒，語言學習較快
◎鄭寺音

Babies who hear foreign speech in their first nine months of life find it easier to languages in school or as adults, research has found.

出生後9個月間聽外國話的嬰兒，在學校或成年後比較容易掌握語言，研究發現。

But those who hear only English as babies are left unable to distinguish between subtly different sounds not used in their native language.

但嬰兒時期只聽英文的人，無法分辨他們母語未用到的音之間的細微不同。

Psychologists at Bristol University found that the developing brain undergoes a period of "programming" in infancy.

布里斯托大學的心理學家發現，發育中的腦部在嬰兒期經歷一段「程式化」時期。

This process helps the brain make sense of speech by filtering out sounds not used in the native language, but also makes it harder to recognise unfamiliar sounds from foreign languages.

這個過程協助大腦藉著過濾母語沒使用的聲音來理解語言，但也使得辨識外語中不熟悉的聲音更加困難。

Crucially, babies exposed to multiple languages during their first few months retain the ability to recognise sounds from all the languages they hear.

重要的是，出生頭幾個月接觸多種語言的嬰兒，保留從所有聽到的語言辨識聲音的能力。

新聞辭典

pick up：學到、獲得。例句：He was picking up the skills quickly.（他正在迅速地學起技術。）

distinguish：區別、識別。例句：He can distinguish a genuine antique from a reproduction.（他能區別真正的古董與複製品。）

infancy：嬰兒期。例句：He has been bright from infancy.（他從小就很聰明。）

自由時報-970807
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