Is Expansion a Critical Factor of Early Linguistic Development? : The Case of Foreign Mothers and Children in Japan

Overall, as discussed in the preceding parts, mother-child communication plays an important role in the early language development. Sufficient maternal linguistic input will help children speed up in their language acquisition. When early lexical development may see children vary with different growth rates, it is necessary to consider the fact of individual variations and look forward to future progress optimistically. However, early symptoms of language delay cannot be neglected especially for children less blessed in a sufficient language environment. In the present study, foreign mothers and their children have been treated as special targets to look for any potential problems. The existence of late-talkers among minority children in the United States who may face future difficulties in school and academic performance has been intensively discussed in the research to support the significance of the present study. The comparative analysis between mothers of the two groups have indicated that Chinese mothers are as equally responsive as Japanese mothers to their children's speech. However, Chinese mothers provide less expansions and extensions than Japanese mothers in their response do. It could be a result of the Chinese mothers' less proficient Japanese language performance. Besides, cultural backgrounds have also been taken into consideration to look at the differences with broader views