Infants learn earlier than thought

[Francis Hult]

This sort of misinformation seems like a common thread in many articles about language learning in popular media.  Your comments make me wonder what our responsibility is as researchers and public intellectuals.  What role should we have in educating the public about what we know?  What is the best way to do that?  Could we even have a bigger impact on policy by engaging more with the general public through popular media?  FMH
 
--
Francis M. Hult, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies
University of Texas at San Antonio
 
Web: http://faculty.coehd.utsa.edu/fhult/

________________________________

From: Nancy Hornberger [mailto:nancyh at gse.upenn.edu]
Sent: Fri 2/6/2009 10:54 AM
To: Francis Hult; edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu
Subject: Re: [Edling] Infants learn earlier than thought



Francis and all -- this turned out to be one of the scarier articles
I've read in recent times!  all sorts of unfounded assertions and leaps
from brain scans (that don't seem to tell us anything we didn't already
know) to recommendations to parents to read to their child (even in
utero), with unsubstantiated stereotypes about welfare, affluence, and
vocabulary development casually thrown into the mix.  Truly alarming to
think that this sort of stuff gets wide attention through the media.  Yikes!
Nhh

Francis Hult wrote on 5 Feb 2009:
> The Seattle Times
>
> 
>
> Infants learn earlier than thought
>
> 
>
> Until recently, humans could safely view their brains as fatty, spongy masses of electrifying wonder. Brains are, in a sense, a secret place no one else can tap into unless we let them; they are our memory banks and central control centers that dictate how we behave and reason and interact with others.
>
> 
>
> But in the past decade, neuroscientists across the world have started to peer into the young brain to determine exactly how we learn. Examining their findings, researchers say that learning starts at birth, and perhaps even earlier.
>
> 
>
> Full story:
>
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2008700779_brains03.html
>
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