Diversifying language acquisition research can be (partly) achieved in urban societies and with simplified methodologies: Insights from multilingual Ghana

Paul Okyere Omane; Titia Benders; Reginald Akuoko Duah; Natalie Boll-Avetisyan

doi:10.1017/S0305000923000090

Diversifying language acquisition research can be (partly) achieved in urban societies and with simplified methodologies: Insights from multilingual Ghana

J Child Lang. 2023 Mar 15:1-5. doi: 10.1017/S0305000923000090. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Paul Okyere Omane^{1

2

3}, Titia Benders⁴, Reginald Akuoko Duah⁵, Natalie Boll-Avetisyan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science Unit, University of Potsdam, Germany.
² School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney-Australia.
³ International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language and Brain (IDEALAB), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany; University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ University of Ghana, Legon/Humboldt Universitaet, Berlin.

PMID: 36919648
DOI: 10.1017/S0305000923000090

Abstract

There is a large consensus (e.g., Cristia, Foushee, Aravena-Bravo, Cychosz, Scaff & Casillas, 2022; Kidd & Garcia, 2022) that diversification in language acquisition research is needed. Cristia et al. (2022) convincingly argue for studying language acquisition in rural populations and recommend combining observational and experimental approaches in doing so. In this commentary, we identify that diversification efforts must also include children growing up in non-western urban societies and that combining experiments with more easy-to-obtain data on language exposure can be a solid method to start with.

Keywords: Field-based research; Language diversity; Multilingual language acquisition.