Research: Language Learning starts 10 Weeks before Birth
By
Anne Hwang
Posted in: Science & Research
There have been many debates as to whether language learning for baby starts before or after birth. This research may provide additional evidence to the fact that language learning starts even before birth.
Researchers say that newborns react differently to native and foreign vowel sounds which suggest that language learning begins in the womb, but how much learning of speech sounds is unknown.
Infants tested seven to seventy-five hours after birth treated spoken variants of a vowel sound in their home as similar; this indicated that newborns regard these sounds as a member of a common category as stated by Christine Moon, a psychologist, at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Fetuses can hear outside sounds by about 10 weeks before birth. Previously, evidence suggested that prenatal learning was restricted to the melody, rhythm and loudness of voices
Researchers proposed that in the last couple of months of gestation, babies monitor at least some vowels, usually the most expressive and loudest speech sounds made by their mothers.
The vowel tracking before birth shows that fetuses hear amazingly well despite being immersed in amniotic fluid inside cramped quarters as one psychologist suggested. The new study suggests that the fetal brain close to birth can perceive and learn the important aspects of speech.
For the research study, 80 healthy newborns, half in the U.S hospitals and half in Swedish hospitals were studied. In a quiet room, each infant lay in a crib with soft headphones place next to his or her ears. The infants, sucking on a pacifier that’s connected to a computer, triggered the presentation of vowel sounds for five minutes.
Utterances made by the infants consisted of 17 variants of an English hard e, as in the word fee, and 17 variants of a Swedish vowel which sounds roughly like yeh. The vowels uttered included one that had been rated as the best example of that sound by native speakers.
The researched noticed that on average newborns sucked their pacifiers more times upon hearing foreign vowels than native vowels. The finding was held regardless of time since birth. All versions of native sound elicited generally the same rate of pacifier sucking which means that newborns already perceived these speech sounds as part of a single category.
It looks like language learning may start at a much earlier time than most people think after all. So why not profit from this early start and raise your baby bilingual? Research shows that this will lead to cognitive benefits later on in life.
Amhika´s Blog 
Another important reason to expose children to a foreign language as soon as possible. There have also been studies which prove that fetuses react to music as well.
It is largely known that, when still being in the womb, babies can feel the vibration from their mother’s voice. This preliminar sense of hearing, prepares the field for subsequent language acquisition.
And regarding foreign language learning, the sooner, the better. This is no new. What is highly surprising among this article, is the fact that newborns can differentiate mother tongue sounds from foreign sounds. This is something that encourages us to insist and recommend early foreign language learning, considering the wide possibilities that came through this new discovery, which assures us that bilingualism is even easier and more factible if age is taken into account, same as the emergence of a teaching action is designed according to this capability that babies and toddlers can show.
This is a very interesting article! All parents should be aware of this discovery to favor the future of their children. Many of them think it is early to expose their children to a foreign language from before birth, but human beings are so wonderful that the are biologically prepared to perceive both native and foreign sounds from the womb!
“Language learning begins 10 weeks before birth “. Therefore, the sooner the child is exposed to a foreign language, the better. It will be a benefit that he/she will be grateful for!
Es importante contar con estas investigaciones, para poder tener evidencias que constaten, si realmente es cierto que el aprendizaje del niño comienza en la panza de su madre. Porque ya sabiendo que no solo es posible que los bebés reconozcan sonidos o melodías; sino que también son capaces de reconocer algunos sonidos vocálicos, se puede estimular el aprendizaje desde otra perspectiva. Siempre es necesario y beneficioso poder investigar y utilizar esos resultados para lograr avanzar en el aprendizaje, dejando de la lado todos los prejuicios y opiniones que proclaman que es poco recomendable la adquisición del idioma desde tan pequeños. Por el contrario, siguiendo las evidencias, los bebés verán resultados fructíferos en un futuro no muy lejano.
This investigation is important and necessary to have evidence about the babies´s learning.
Not only is it important that we learn that babies are able to recognize sounds or melodies, but also that babies are able to recognize some vowel sounds. It is always necessary and beneficial to investigate and use those results to achieve progress in learning, apart from all the prejudice and opinions claiming that language acquisition is not recommended at an early age.
It is known that unborn babies can hear music, feel vibrations and that it has been demostrated that, inside the womb, children do indeed hear everything, including people’s voices, which helps them to start learning words and recognize them once they are born.
What called my attention was that the article talks about a study which has also demostrated that children are able to distinguish sounds from their mother tongue from a foreign language sounds.
Taking into account that young children are like sponges and they absorb and learn from everything that surrounds them, we should expose them to other languages as soon as possible.
I found this article very interesting. Our work as educators is being constantly updated and in contact with many other areas of study such as psychology; therefore, we should learn about the lastest reseach papers that involve our profession. I was aware of the fact that little children can easily learn a foreign language, but it certainly surprised me to learn that babies can also differentiate their mother tongue from foreign sounds. It is definitely an advantage that is worth taking into account, in order to expose children to a foreign language since babies.
Learning a second language sine an early age has always caught my attention. In my opinion babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb.
I think, it is a more natural way to understand and incorporate a second language. There are some studies that confirm the fact that babies can discriminate between language sounds within the first months of life. With the purpose of reinforcing that, most people start talking to their babies before they are born.
The truth is that the baby’s brain is formidable from the beginning. In contrary with the conception that they are just a blank slate, the baby’s brain while still in the womb, is already operating. It hears, tastes, senses light, reacts to touch, learns, and remembers. Gentle words or soft music calms it. Angry speech or rock music agitates it. The mother’s rhythmic heartbeat soothes it. Regarding child’s capacity to learn language, latest findings show that the young brain seems to be programmed almost like a computer for language development and possess an amazing ability to scan the environment and to pick out of the hubbub a pattern in language, its mind is capable of grasping the concept of language and putting it to work. Not only that, but children of tender years can learn a complex language, just by being exposed to it. If it hears two languages, it learns them both. If three are spoken, it learns all three; it may even speak more than two languages with ease before they have even begun to go to school. Therefore, we can say that a baby is well equipped to learn and the intelligence is there waiting to be developed almost right away after their conception.
Me resultó muy interesante el artículo ya que considero que en las diferentes etapas de la vida podemos adquirir herramientas para aprender un idioma.
Se dice que desde bebés podemos escuchar mejor diferentes sonidos, incluso desde el mismo vientre materno y así adquirir y reconocer distintos acentos. Y de adultos, tenemos mayor capacidad de atención, lo que nos permite adquirir más vocabulario. Pero es cierto que las circunstancias de la vida adulta nos lleva a que este proceso sea quizás más lento que en la infancia cuando nuestra mente es una “esponja” ávida de conocimiento.