Multilingualism, Acquisition, and Development (MAD) colloquium: Beyond Maternal Education: Socioeconomic Status and Language Development in South African Toddlers

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) and children’s home environment are widely recognised as important influences on language development. However, much of the existing research has typically relied on maternal level of education as the sole proxy for SES. Moreover, focusing narrowly on vocabulary size, often in English-speaking, minority-world contexts. This approach risks oversimplifying SES, especially when the same approach is used in majority-world contexts that may differ significantly from sites of previous research. This narrow approach risks overlooking the multifaceted nature of SES and consequently, a more complete understanding of its relationship with language development.

This talk will present findings from South Africa that encourage us to question the common reliance on maternal level of education as the sole proxy for SES. The results show that broader and more contextually relevant measures of the home environment could offer a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between SES and language development.

Please contact garcia@leibniz-zas.de for Teams link!

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