Diversifying language acquisition research can be (partly) achieved in urban societies and with simplified methodologies: Insights from multilingual Ghana

Abstract

There is a large consensus (e.g., Cristia, Foushee, Aravena-Bravo, Cychosz, Scaff & Casillas, 2023; Kidd & Garcia, 2022) that diversification in language acquisition research is needed. Cristia et al. (2023) convincingly argue for studying language acquisition in rural populations and recommend combining observational and experimental approaches in doing so. In this commentary, we identify that diversification efforts must also include children growing up in non-western urban societies and that combining experiments with more easy-to-obtain data on language exposure can be a solid method to start with.