La Lengua del Oyente: Some Effects of Listener Language on Hispanic Children’s Vocal Verbal Behavior

Hispanic children in the United States represent a large population of school-aged children who are exposed to English and Spanish. Unfortunately, these children may be at risk of losing their home language because the prominent language (e.g., English) in American schools may be the only language supported in classrooms. In addition, the home exposure or support to maintain Spanish may not be sufficient for them to become fluent speakers. It may be possible that Hispanic dual language learners adapt to the language spoken by their audience, which may lead to the degradation of their home language. Genesee et al. (1996) identified that children’s vocal verbal behavior was sensitive to the language of their listener. The purpose of this study was to extend Genesee et al. (1996) to dual language (English and Spanish) learners (children) adjusting their language to the language of nonfamiliar listeners. That is, to assess Hispanic dual language learner’s vocal verbal utterances in the presence of English- versus Spanish-speaking novel experimenters (i.e., strangers). We found that 9 of 10 participants matched their language to their listener for 95% or more utterances in both languages. These results suggest that the language of the listener may have an effect on the participants’ vocal verbal behavior. Thus, given that children may adapt their language to their listeners, it may be important to provide dual language support in classrooms to ensure that these children maintain their home language.