HESP Seminar: Arynn Byrd, Rhosean Asmah, Sophie Damanski, Yi Ting Huang (HESP)

Evaluating “meaningful differences” in language learning and communication across SES backgrounds Abstract: SES differences in language development are ubiquitous, but their implications for learning and communication remain unclear. While there is consensus that language skills are affected by early environments, and poverty contributes to achievement gaps, existing research has yet to wrestle with whether language gaps are in fact linguistic in nature or reflect instead more fundamental differences in social and conceptual knowledge. To tease apart these accounts, we need to carve SES experiences at their joints, and detail specific processes that generate year-to-year changes and child-to-child differences. We will describe a mixed-methods project that takes on this challenge through a 3-pronged approach. First, we conduct parent interviews to understand the idiosyncrasies of family lives and the backdrops of parent-child communication. Second, we leverage technology to densely sample parental input, and develop analytical strategies that yield finer-grained descriptions of dimensions beyond sheer quantity. Third, we harness the power of web-cam eye-tracking to understand how language experiences alters strategies for anticipating sentence meanings in real time. Data collection is on-going, and we will offer snap shots of what we have learned. Unraveling these dimensions can inform when and where language gaps might create challenges for learning and communication.