Our Uhs And Ums May Help Children Learn Language

[The Straight Story]

Our Uhs And Ums May Help Children Learn Language

"Uh we'll be um right back um after, um this message."

Now does that sound like a pro speaker? It's better to remove ums and uhs right?—so we’ve been told all our lives.

"We'll be right back after this message."
Well not always, according to new research in the journal Developmental Science. When it comes to teaching our toddlers how to speak uhs and ums help the child to focus on words that follow.

Researchers studied children between the ages of 18 and 30 months as they sat on their parents’ lap in front of a monitor. The screen displayed two images. One was familiar, such as a banana, and the other an abstract made-up object. A recorded voice said things like: I see a banana, or There is uh, um, uh a banana. When the voice stumbled, children who were more than 24 months tended to look at the made-up object more often than at the familiar object. Because children who’ve reached that age understand that uhs often precede unknowns.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=our-uhs-and-ums-may-help-children-l-11-04-17

[Peace Patriot]

1. Wow! Very interesting. I was thinking that it's kind of like singing.

"...uh, um, uh a banana." The "uh, um, uh" is a cue. Singing does that--it gives a musical cue to memory. And sometimes it even has la-la-la's and other nonsense words. But mostly it has memory tags in the notes and melody and other sounds. You know a word is coming up because it rides on the melody or other sounds.

It doesn't have to be "uh, um, uh"--if you don't want to teach your baby a REALLY BAD speaking habit. You could provide some other kind of rest, tag or cue--I was thinking even hand signals might work (the way some people gesture a lot when they talk) as a cue.

Anyway, I LOVE this topic. Thanks for posting!

[Igel]

4. Dysfluencies are a big topic.

They signal a number of different things. The extent to which speakers intentionally use them--silence can be a perfectly fine dysfluency--was unknown the last time I checked. In many settings silence yields the floor and is a turn-taking marker; in others, it marks a lapse, where the speaker has to stop and isn't likely to continue. The "um" and "uh" that locution critics pan are useful. They're also useful in signaling conversational repair, where you start a sentence that doesn't work out and so you start over.

Of rather more interest was what use listeners made of them that speakers didn't intend. This would be a good instance. If lexical access time is longer for words that the speaker hasn't been primed for, less common words, that would certainly be of interest to a language learner.

(I always found them useful as an adult language learner because they simply gave me time to catch up with my language processing.)

[Terra Alta]

2. If this is the case, the Bush twins should be the best speakers on the planet.

No one was more of an expert at using "uh" and "um" more than their daddy.

[thecrow]

3. Oh dear... Toastmasters will hate this finding!

They actually have an "ah" counter to help judge speeches.

This makes sense, though.
Interesting read. Thanks!