Project description
How experience affects a child’s language learning
Establishing the extent to which experience affects child language acquisition is crucial to understand human cognition. Current approaches cannot fully account for the causal links of this process. The EU-funded ExELang project will study how the speech that infants hear affects their learning of the sounds and structures of their native language, as represented in their own speech. The project will use an innovative and ecological technique consisting of audio recordings collected with a recorder worn by the child. ExELang will develop machine learning algorithms to automatically analyse 15 large-scale corpora of 25 000 hours of audio from over 1 400 children living in urban and rural areas on every continent and learning a wide variety of languages.
Objective
"To what extent does experience affect child language acquisition? Answering this is crucial for our understanding of human cognition, but current evidence is insufficient because causal links between experience and outcomes cannot be established with typical approaches. We will study how the speech infants hear affects their learning of the sounds and structures of their native language, as represented in the speech the same infants produce, using an innovative and ecological technique: Audio-recordings collected with a recorder worn by the child throughout a normal day. Fifteen large-scale corpora will be combined, totaling over 25,000h of audio, collected from over 1,400 infants, living in rural and urban sites in every peopled continent, and learning a wide variety of mostly unrelated languages.
We will develop cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to automatically analyze these long, messy, and multilingual recordings. This will yield measures representing infants' experiences (the speech addressed to them, and the speech they overhear) as well as how advanced their own vocalizations are.
A subset of data come from Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) where treatment groups have received behavioral interventions aimed at increasing the quantity of speech infants are addressed. We aim to establish to what extent speech addressed to the infants and overheard speech affect their development by triangulating analyses of variation across individuals, cultures, and treatment-control contrasts.
In parallel, we will use a reverse-engineering approach to assess the theoretically-predicted effects of experience. A variety of learning mechanisms will be implemented in unsupervised learning systems which take as input audio like that heard by infants and produce as output ""vocalizations"". If a system yields the same experience-outcome curves found in the infants’ data, then those learning mechanisms plausibly resemble those used by infants."
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.