词汇大师-- How to Help Your Baby Learn to Talk?

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER: baby talk.
(MOVIE SOUND)
The movie "Babies" is now showing in theaters in the United States. It's a documentary that follows four infants through their first year. Two of the families live in rural communities in Namibia and Mongolia. The other two live in busy cities -- Tokyo and San Francisco, California.
The director, French filmmaker Thomas Balmes, did most of the filming himself. Imagine 400 hours of footage, edited down to a 79-minute film without narration¹. That's "Babies."
But, really, who needs a narrator when you can let babies speak for themselves? In fact, as we hear from VOA's Carol Pearson, researchers are finding that babies know more than we sometimes realize.
CP: What do they know and when do they know it? Such questions have researchers monitoring babies' brains to find out.
At Northwestern University, researchers recently concluded that well before babies start to speak, they recognize words and can link them to the things they represent.
At four and a half months, Finn is not talking, but he definitely responds to what his mother says.
The Northwestern study and others indicate that one of the best things parents can do is talk to their babies.

　　COVINGTON CAMPBELL: "One day when exploring, what do you think he'd see? What do you think he'll see?"
Researchers think babies begin developing language skills while they are in the womb.
Covington Campbell was in law school when she was pregnant with Finn.
COVINGTON CAMPBELL: "I was finishing my last semester of law school, so, I guess, check back with me in 30 years and see if he's a litigator, because he would definitely come alive in my corporations classes and he always heard my professors speaking."
Professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasik directs the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University in Philadelphia.
KATHY HIRSH-PASIK: "We think the very first processes of language development are actually starting in the womb because they are overhearing their mother's speech."
Researchers say that is when babies pick up the melodies of language.
KATHY HIRSH-PASIK: "They can sometimes remember some of the words that they've heard.  And they appear to zoom² in on classes of language. They may not know French from Spanish, but they know that that's in one group and English and German are in another group."
Another study shows that babies and children who are frequently talked to have higher IQ scores and later on, do better in school.
Child development specialist Judy Montgomery encourages parents to talk to their babies.
JUDY MONTGOMERY: "Parents and caregivers; the family members are the first ones who introduce vocabulary.  And the more words the children hear, the greater their vocabulary."
But Hirsh-Pasik warns against putting babies in front of a television.
KATHY HIRSH-PASIK: "Children need the interactive³ back-and-forth. We call it 'reciprocity.'"
Campbell says she likes to sing to her baby.
COVINGTON CAMPBELL: "He smiles a lot when we sing to him. He definitely reacts to it, it sort of calms him down a little bit."
Carol Pearson, VOA News.
AA: And you can watch a video of Carol's report on our website, voanews.com/wordmaster. You can also search through our program archives and subscribe⁴ to our weekly podcast. And you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. That's WORDMASTER for this week. I'm Avi Arditti.
(MUSIC: "Babies" theme)

1 narration   

n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体

参考例句：

• The richness of his novel comes from his narration of it.他小说的丰富多采得益于他的叙述。
• Narration should become a basic approach to preschool education.叙事应是幼儿教育的基本途径。

2 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

3 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

4 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。