Babies Can Tell Languages Apart By Facial Expression

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Babies can tell languages apart by facial expression

Published: 25 May 2007

Four-month-old babies can discriminate between different languages merely by studying the facial movements of the speaker, according to a pioneering study of speech development in infants.

Even with the sound turned off on a video recording, babies were able to tell whether someone had switched from speaking English to speaking French, the scientists who conducted the study found.

The researchers believe that this "visual speech" ability is a critical component of language learning and is something that is retained for longer in babies brought up in bilingual homes who learn two languages at once.

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Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2581232.ece