I have a slide from the Myers text that shows that the ability to perceive language differences between languages is actually gone by 11-12 months. This ability to percieve the fine nuances is strong until about only 6 months and then rapidly diminishes by 1 year of age. I have also learned this from other text books and I believe there is a segment in the Discovering Psychology series about this --none of which means it is true! I am at home today (putatively grading papers as I am looking at a tall stack even as I distract myself with email; but it's teaching related!) so I can't pull books off my shelf and will leave it to others to give a more evidence-based response.
As a second academic avenue to the accent discussion, I assign Nell as an optional assignment for my students and ask them for an analysis of how different accents are connected to our perceptions of intelligence. Clearly the "southern" accent (HUGE APOLOGIES) is often perceived as "less intelligent". I'm not saying I think that, I'm just saying......lest anyone be offended. For one thing, it is strongly promoted in films and other mass media and for another, many southerners self-efface with humor that supports this negative (and we all know, inaccurate) stereotype. Nevertheless, such is the case in the film Nell, in which the Southern accent is pronounced to illustrate the stereotype. In the film Nell, however, there is awareness by the movie makers, I believe, that they were taking advantage of this incorrect stereotype; but for most people watching the film, I wonder if that backfires? Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 09:18:32 -0400 >From: "Beth Benoit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [tips] The Southern accent >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > I have friends from Canada who say "aboot," "hoose" > (for house). BUT it's a little softer and more > rounded-sounding than the harshness of that "oo" > sound. Trying to take a stab at type it more > phonetically, it's more like a-buout. Dagnabit, > that's not good either. Where's Henry Higgins when > you need him? Or more accurately, George Bernard > Shaw, who was very big on a phonetic alphabet. > > In an attempt to pull this into teaching > psychology: I'm covering language development in > children, and showed a wonderful clip from The Brain > series, that shows that a baby under 11 months of > age can distinguish between all language sounds, but > after that, becomes a "citizen of one culture" and > can only distinguish sounds that he/she would hear > in English. I always point out that if a child > comes to a "new country" and learns a new language, > they may not have an accent, even if their parents > do not speak the new language in the home. Yet > after a certain age, they're more likely to have an > accent when speaking the new language. I have used > Henry Kissinger and his younger brother as examples, > though I'm not sure that many of them are familiar > with his rich German accent anymore. > > So my question is, what IS the actual age period > when this accent/no accent period takes place? I > seem to recall it was around pre-puberty, but > perhaps there are too many other variables that can > affect whether a child will ultimately have a > lifelong accent? > > Beth Benoit > Granite State College > Plymouth State University > New Hampshire > > On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 11:50 PM, > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 3 Apr 2008 at 21:43, Shearon, Tim wrote: > > > Canadians do not say "Eh" (unless they are > > hard of hearing). Start with > http://www.billcasselman.com/ Y'all come > > back now. Stephen or others may have better > suggestions. :) > > Yes he does. And one of them is to assert, with > pride, that Canadians do > indeed say "eh". Certainly I do, every day, and > I'm not hard of > hearing. And bill casselman agrees, if you'd > check your own reference. > He says, "Eh? is a true marker of Canadian > speech". > > What we don't say is "aboot". > > Stephen > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology, Emeritus > Bishop's University e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 2600 College St. > Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 > Canada > > Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the > teaching of > psychology at > http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
