Parental Speech and Language Acquisition: An Anthropological Perspective

The contribution of anthropology to the study of pre- and perinatal
development will largely derive from the concept of culture, which is defined as the systems of meaning that
members of society attribute to each other in their behavior. The concept is useful in the study of child language
acquisition, since it necessitates a description of the ways that caretakers conceptualize their interactions with
prelinguistic and language-acquiring children. Facilitative roles of parental speech are foregrounded, and
meaning systems are made visible rather than overlooked or assumed. Illustrations are provided from English,
Spanish, Luo, Samoan, and Quiche Mayan. The editorial to this issue mentions the contributions that
anthropology has made to pre-natal and peri-natal studies (see also Laughlin 1989). Within that framework, the
present article is focused on what anthropology might contribute to the study of children’s first language
acquisition. Anthropology, by virtue of its concept of culture and its descriptive, observational research methods,
is well placed to address specific issues in child language acquisition research.