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Episode: How babies learn to talk

Author: BBC Radio
Duration: 00:06:14

Episode Shownotes

What do babies need to learn to do to be able to talk?TRANSCRIPT Find a full transcript and worksheet for this episode to help you with your English at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish`/english/features/6-minute-english_2024/ep-241128SUBSCRIBE` TO OUR NEWSLETTER: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish`/newslettersFIND` BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE: Visit our website ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/followusLIKE PODCASTS? Try

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_06
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

00:00:11 Speaker_01
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.

00:00:16 Speaker_05
And I'm Georgie. For most parents, their baby's first word is a special moment. This happens after an early stage of language development called babble, when babies start making simple sounds like ga or ma.

00:00:30 Speaker_01
Babies have to learn to use their mouth muscles to make specific sounds. They experiment with different sounds and mouth shapes. So what exactly is happening when babies start learning to speak? What do you think, Georgie?

00:00:44 Speaker_05
Well, Phil, I'm no expert, but I imagine they watch the adults around them and kind of copy and imitate what they do. What do you think?

00:00:52 Speaker_01
I definitely think that's what my children did when they were learning to speak. But let's compare our ideas with those of an expert.

00:01:01 Speaker_01
Professor Julian Pine from Liverpool University, speaking here on BBC Radio 4, and he lists the skills that babies develop in order to speak.

00:01:11 Speaker_06
Well, one of the first things the child's got to do is they've got to break down the speech stream into words. Then they've got to link the words to the things that they refer to in the environment. So they've got to learn what the words mean. Right.

00:01:23 Speaker_05
In this programme, we'll discover how babies learn to speak and, as usual, we'll learn some useful new vocabulary. And on the subject of words, remember you can find a list of this programme's vocabulary on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

00:01:39 Speaker_05
Some people find it helpful to study the vocabulary before listening.

00:01:43 Speaker_01
And another thing to do before listening is ask my question. Georgie, we've mentioned the babbling noises that babies make when learning to speak, but at what age does this usually start?

00:01:56 Speaker_01
Is it… a. Around 6 months old b. Around 9 months old c. Around 1 year old

00:02:05 Speaker_05
OK, I think my best guess would be A, around six months old.

00:02:10 Speaker_01
OK, well we'll find out a little bit later on in the programme. Let's return to Professor Pine's list. The first thing babies do is recognise where individual words start and end.

00:02:24 Speaker_01
For this it helps to know that, in English at least, words often begin with a stressed syllable. the sound in a word which is emphasised by being spoken longer or louder.

00:02:37 Speaker_01
Learning this takes time and here Professor Pine and Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC Radio 4's programme, Word of Mouth, discuss children who haven't quite discovered it yet.

00:02:50 Speaker_06
and we can see this in the kind of errors that children make because little kids will often call the giraffe a raff by leaving off the unstressed syllable because that's not typical English.

00:03:01 Speaker_07
Oh, and I've got an example of this. My son used to call a machine a sminge.

00:03:07 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:03:07 Speaker_07
He just hit the stress, he didn't bother with the muh bit. Yeah, exactly. Well, he may have thought it was my sminge of course, that's the other thing. Yes.

00:03:13 Speaker_06
And the classic example of course is nana instead of banana. Yes, I think I call them that.

00:03:20 Speaker_05
One error or mistake infants make is calling a giraffe a ruff because they cut off the first syllable, g, because it's not stressed.

00:03:30 Speaker_01
The classic example of this is when children say nana instead of banana. A classic example of something means the best example of it, one containing all the features you expect such a thing to have.

00:03:45 Speaker_01
For example, ants are a classic example of animals working together.

00:03:50 Speaker_05
The second skill babies develop as they learn to speak is correctly linking a word to the object it refers to. In other words, knowing what the word means.

00:03:59 Speaker_05
As adults, we do this without thinking, but it's actually much harder than it sounds, as Professor Julian Pine explains to BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth.

00:04:10 Speaker_06
Well, we take for granted the fact that it's kind of obvious what words refer to in the environment.

00:04:14 Speaker_06
But actually, if you look at it from the child's point of view, it's really difficult to work out what a word refers to because there's so many things it could refer to. So, you know, the speech signal is very ambiguous.

00:04:27 Speaker_06
How does the child know that you're talking about the cup in front of you or the pen in front of you when you say pen or cup?

00:04:33 Speaker_01
As adults, we take it for granted that when a friend says apple, they mean that round, red thing on the table. To take it for granted means to assume something without question. But for a baby, the link between the word apple

00:04:50 Speaker_01
And the object is not obvious, it's ambiguous, meaning it has more than one possible meaning.

00:04:57 Speaker_05
Wow! Who knew so much was going on inside babies' sponge-like brains as they soak up the sounds they hear? Right, Phil, isn't it time to reveal the answer to your question?

00:05:08 Speaker_01
It is indeed. The question was, at what age do babies start to make babbling noises?

00:05:14 Speaker_05
and I said it was around six months.

00:05:17 Speaker_01
And that is the correct answer! Yay! Babies start to do this when they're about six months old. OK, let's recap the vocabulary that we've learnt, starting with babble, the meaningless noises babies make as they're learning to speak.

00:05:33 Speaker_05
The stressed syllable in a word is the sound which is emphasised by being longer, louder or higher.

00:05:39 Speaker_01
An error is a mistake.

00:05:41 Speaker_05
The classic example of something is the most typical example of it, containing its most important features.

00:05:47 Speaker_01
If you take something for granted, you accept or assume it without question.

00:05:53 Speaker_05
And finally, the adjective ambiguous means having more than one possible meaning. Once again, our six minutes are up, but if you're ready for more, you'll find the worksheet with a quiz and a transcript for this programme on our website.

00:06:07 Speaker_05
See you there soon.

00:06:08 Speaker_02
Bye. Bye.

00:06:23 Speaker_00
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00:06:37 Speaker_04
It felt a really safe and welcoming space. After the yoga classes, I felt amazing.

00:06:44 Speaker_00
But soon, that calm, welcoming atmosphere leads to something far darker, a journey that leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation across international borders.

00:06:57 Speaker_04
I don't have my passport, I don't have my phone, I don't have my bank cards, I have nothing.

00:07:02 Speaker_03
The passport being taken, the being in a house and not feeling like they can leave.

00:07:08 Speaker_00
World of Secrets is where untold stories are unveiled and hidden realities are exposed. In this new series, we're confronting the dark side of the wellness industry, where the hope of a spiritual breakthrough gives way to disturbing accusations.

00:07:24 Speaker_00
You just get sucked in so gradually.

00:07:28 Speaker_04
and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise. And it's like this, the secret that's there. I wanted to believe that, you know, that

00:07:42 Speaker_04
whatever they were doing, even if it seemed gross to me, was for some spiritual reason that I couldn't yet understand. Revealing the hidden secrets of a global yoga network. I feel that I have no other choice.

00:07:56 Speaker_04
The only thing I can do is to speak about this and to put my reputation and everything else on the line. I want truth and justice. and for other people to not be hurt, for things to be different in the future.

00:08:18 Speaker_04
To bring it into the light and almost alchemise some of that evil stuff that went on and take back the power.

00:08:29 Speaker_00
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