Non-native maternal speech: A discursive analysis of a Thai mother's Japanese to her child

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24720188
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: International Christian University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAMURA Janice 国際基督教大学, 教育研究所, 研究員 (10622136)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: nonnative / maternal speech / Japanese / Thai / language use / errors / baby talk / particles

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study examines the speech of a Thai mother who chose to use Japanese to her child from birth. Video data from ages 1;2 to 2;6 revealed that, despite the mother’s avowal to speak Japanese, her native Thai and her L2, English were occasionally used. She reverted to Thai most often and made use of Thai baby words and discourse particles. This led to some intermittent production by the child but proportionately more Thai baby talk than Thai discourse particles were produced. The mother’s Japanese speech was mostly accurate with a low percentage of errors. The rate of child errors was even lower than the rate for maternal errors. Analysis of particle use errors, which were higher than most other errors types for mother and child, showed different characteristics in their errors, suggesting that nonnative maternal input did not adversely affect the accuracy of the child’s early speech production.

Free Research Field

人文学