Language and Literacy: Developmental, Cultural, and Brain Mechanisms

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Language and Literacy: Developmental, Cultural, and Brain Mechanisms Henry Wellman, Frederick Morrison, and Twila Tardif Being able to talk, to read and to profit from instruction are core cognitive competencies of older children and adults. Much of our lives are spent talking with, reading about, learning from and teaching others; in short, in communicating and learning. Core abilities to communicate and to learn develop in the preschool years and then set the stage for the transition to school and more focused learning. For example, during the preschool years children acquire communicative competence, vocabulary, knowledge about people and about the world, initial abilities to reason logically, and very early literacy skills. How do they do so? How can we best help them do so? How do such early skills make possible later school-based learning? To answer these questions requires consideration of a variety of processes-development and learning, informal and formal instruction, language and literacy. It requires consideration of several levels of analysis-brain mechanisms, childhood experiences, formal and informal lessons provided by others, cultural and instructional practices. Changes in language and literacy in the preschool years thus provide a remarkable window of opportunity for researching the complex developmental, cultural-institutional, and neurocognitive mechanisms responsible for cognitive growth. This Children's Research Initiative planning grant will design research needed to exploit this window of opportunity. The eventual aim of this project is the establishment of an integrative research center to undertake the needed research. Initially, the investigators will focus on combining three different research approaches to address these complex questions. One concerns cross-cultural comparisons, in this case comparisons between Chinese and English cultures and practices (specifically, US, Hong Kong, and mainland Chinese). Chinese and English contrast as languages in intriguing ways--not the least of which is differences in writing and reading systems. Moreover, Hong Kong, China and the US offer different types of socialization experiences with regards to language, literacy, and schooling. A second approach disentangles the influences of age (maturation) and experience (especially school experiences) by using school cutoff methods. In school cutoff studies, children who just made versus just missed the cutoff for school entry (and thus who are of identical age but different experiences) will be compared on growth of cognitive, language, and literacy skills. A third approach is to apply cognitive neuroscience methods of brain imaging to developing preschool children. Such research can yield important insights about both the maturation of brain structures and the role of experience in developing language and literacy skills. Combinations of these research approaches and results promise to illuminate the development of essential human abilities, in particular those involved in being able to talk, to read, and to learn.