PSAT/NMSQT Prep 2022 - Eggert M.D., Strelka A. 2022

How much have you learned?
PSAT reading passage strategies
PSAT Reading

Directions: Take five minutes to actively read the following passage by 1) noting the keywords, 2) jotting down margin notes next to each paragraph, and 3) summarizing the big picture. When you’re done, compare your work to the Answers and Explanations at the end of the chapter.

This passage, about infant language acquisition, is adapted from a research paper written in 2017 that explored early childhood development.

¹Infants are born as scientists, ²constantly interacting with and ³questioning the world around them. ⁴However, as any good scientist ⁵knows, simply making observations ⁶is not sufficient; a large part of ⁷learning is dependent on being able ⁸to communicate ideas, observations, ⁹and feelings with others. Though most ¹⁰infants do not produce discernible ¹¹words until around age one or one-anda- ¹²half, they begin gaining proficiency ¹³in their native languages long before ¹⁴that. In fact, many linguists agree that a ¹⁵newborn baby’s brain is already preprogrammed ¹⁶for language acquisition, ¹⁷meaning that it’s as natural for a baby ¹⁸to talk as it is for a dog to dig.

¹⁹According to psycholinguist Anne ²⁰Cutler, an infant’s language acquisition ²¹actually begins well before birth. At ²²only one day old, newborns ²³have demonstrated the ability to ²⁴recognize the voices and rhythms heard ²⁵during their last trimester in the ²⁶muffled confines of the womb. ²⁷In general, infants are more likely to ²⁸attend to a specific voice stream if they ²⁹perceive it as more familiar than other ³⁰streams. Newborns tend to be especially ³¹partial to their mother’s voice and her ³²native language, as opposed to another ³³woman or another language. For ³⁴example, when an infant is presented ³⁵with a voice stream spoken by his ³⁶mother and a background stream ³⁷delivered by an unfamiliar voice, he ³⁸will effortlessly attend to his mother ³⁹while ignoring the background stream. ⁴⁰Therefore, by using these simple yet ⁴¹important cues, and others like them, ⁴²infants can easily learn the essential ⁴³characteristics and rules of their native ⁴⁴language.

⁴⁵However, it is important to note ⁴⁶that an infant’s ability to learn from ⁴⁷the nuances of her mother’s speech is ⁴⁸predicated upon her ability to separate ⁴⁹that speech from the sounds of the ⁵⁰dishwasher, the family dog, the bus ⁵¹stopping on the street outside, and, ⁵²quite possibly, other streams of speech, ⁵³like a newscaster on the television ⁵⁴down the hall or siblings playing in ⁵⁵an adjacent room. Infants are better ⁵⁶able to accomplish this task when the ⁵⁷voice of interest is louder than any ⁵⁸of the competing background noises. ⁵⁹Conversely, when two voices are of ⁶⁰equal amplitude, infants typically ⁶¹demonstrate little preference for one ⁶²stream over the other. Researchers have ⁶³hypothesized that because an infant’s ⁶⁴ability to selectively pay attention to ⁶⁵one voice or sound, even in a mix of ⁶⁶others, has not fully developed yet, the ⁶⁷infant is actually interpreting competing ⁶⁸voice streams that are equally loud ⁶⁹as one single stream with unfamiliar ⁷⁰patterns and sounds.

⁷¹During the first few months after ⁷²birth, infants will subconsciously ⁷³study the language being used around ⁷⁴them, taking note of the rhythmic ⁷⁵patterns, the sequences of sounds, ⁷⁶and the intonation of the language. ⁷⁷Newborns will also start to actively ⁷⁸process how things like differences ⁷⁹in pitch or accented syllables further ⁸⁰affect meaning. Interestingly, up ⁸¹until six months of age, they can still ⁸²recognize and discriminate between ⁸³the phonemes (single units of sound in ⁸⁴a language like “ba” or “pa”) of other ⁸⁵languages. Though infants do display a ⁸⁶preference for the language they heard ⁸⁷in utero, most infants are not biased ⁸⁸towards the specific phonemes of that ⁸⁹language.

⁹⁰This ability to recognize and ⁹¹discriminate between all phonemes ⁹²comes to an end by the middle of their ⁹³first year, at which point infants start ⁹⁴displaying a preference for phonemes ⁹⁵in their native language, culminating ⁹⁶at age one, when they stop responding ⁹⁷to foreign phonemes altogether. This is ⁹⁸part of what is known as the “critical ⁹⁹period,” which begins at birth and ¹⁰⁰lasts until puberty. During this ¹⁰¹period, as the brain continues to grow ¹⁰²and change, language acquisition is ¹⁰³instinctual, explaining why young ¹⁰⁴children seem to pick up languages so ¹⁰⁵easily.