Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class.

旁白：请听一段心理学课程中的讲座节选。

Professor: Okay.

好的。

Let's begin with a quick review.

我们先快速回顾一下。

We've covered different aspects of preverbal development in infants, like when they're making random motions and sounds, or recognizing voices, or beginning to discriminate between different sounds.

我们已经讲过婴儿在语言前阶段发展的不同方面，比如他们发出随机动作和声音、识别声音，或者开始区分不同的声音。

But with everything we've talked about so far, the baby's mostly reacting to what its caregiver does.

但到目前为止我们所谈到的内容中，婴儿大多只是对照顾者的行为做出反应。

And aside from expressing basic needs, the baby really isn't initiating communication.

除了表达基本需求之外，婴儿并没有主动发起交流。

So, today we'll see how babies start to become active partners with their caregivers.

所以，今天我们将看看婴儿是如何开始成为与照顾者积极互动的伙伴的。

For the first seven or eight months the baby responds to stimuli, but we don't see intentional attempts to communicate.

在最初的七八个月里，婴儿只是对外部刺激做出反应，但我们看不到他们有意图地去交流。

What I mean is, apart from their immediate needs, babies don't communicate anything about the world around them.

我的意思是，除了表达眼前的需求外，婴儿并不会传达关于周围世界的任何信息。

Then, typically at about nine months old, the baby enters a new and important stage in normal communicative development, and will begin to engage with others as an active participant.

然后，通常在九个月左右，婴儿进入正常交流发展的一个新的、重要的阶段，开始以积极的参与者身份与他人互动。

And this is essential for real intentional communication.

这是实现真正有意图交流的关键。

To understand what's going on here, let's look at something called joint attention.

为了理解这个过程，我们来看看一个叫“共同注意”的概念。

So, the ability to share a focus of attention with someone else, that's joint attention.

也就是说，与他人共同专注于同一事物的能力，这就是“共同注意”。

Two or more people have a connected awareness of the same thing.

两人或更多人对同一事物有共同的意识。

And in just a few minutes we'll watch a video about babies beginning to use this vital skill.

再过几分钟，我们将观看一段关于婴儿开始使用这一关键技能的视频。

We'll see how using joint attention begins to lead towards intentional communication.

我们将看到，共同注意是如何逐渐引导婴儿实现有意图的交流的。

But where does an infant learn this skill?

那么，婴儿是从哪里学会这项技能的呢？

Well, from its adult caregiver.

是的，来自他们的成年照顾者。

The infant begins to follow the gaze of the adult.

婴儿开始跟随成年人的目光。

To try to see what the adult is focusing attention on, and to share with the adult the experience of looking at this object.

试图看看大人正在关注什么，并与大人一起分享注视这个物体的体验。

Babies may do this for several months, and by looking back and forth between the object of focus and the caregiver the baby is able to coordinate eye contact and a focal point with someone else.

婴儿可能会持续几个月做这种事，通过在关注的物体和照顾者之间来回看，他们能够与他人协调眼神交流和关注焦点。

First by just following the caregivers gaze, and later, at around nine months or so, by making sounds or using gestures, like pointing at what they're both looking at.

一开始只是单纯地跟随照顾者的目光，到了大约九个月时，就会发出声音或使用手势，比如指向他们共同关注的东西。

And here it becomes apparent that the infant is intentionally trying to communicate its desires and interests.

在这一点上，很明显婴儿是有意图地在表达自己的愿望和兴趣。

This is a big breakthrough in the infant's life, because now it's not just the adult directing the baby's attention, but the baby has learned to deliberately attract and direct the adult's attention.

这是婴儿成长中的一个重大突破，因为此时不再只是成人引导婴儿注意，而是婴儿学会了主动吸引并引导成人的注意力。

Like when a baby sees a cat and it points to it while looking at the caregiver, to try to get the caregiver to look at it too.

就像当婴儿看到一只猫时，他会指着它，同时看着照顾者，希望照顾者也去看那只猫。

Another example, when my niece wants a toy that's out of reach, she looks her dad in the eyes, makes a noise and points to the toy.

另一个例子是，当我侄女想要一个够不到的玩具时，她会看着她爸爸的眼睛，发出声音，然后指向那个玩具。

Of course I don't have to mention my family, this isn't something particular to my niece.

当然，我不是特指我家人，这种情况并不是我侄女独有的。

And by the way, these are considered to be two distinct types of pointing.

顺便说一下，这其实被认为是两种不同类型的指向行为。

The infant either points to request something, like a toy, or points to share something, like the interesting cat walking past.

婴儿可能是为了请求某样东西而指，比如一个玩具；或者是为了分享某个有趣的事物，比如走过的一只猫。

Oh, and another thing, the skill of joint attention is extremely important in building vocabulary, because it helps infants to see in under understand what others are talking about.

哦，还有一件事，共同注意这个技能在词汇习得中非常重要，因为它帮助婴儿理解别人说话的内容。

Think about it.

想一想吧。

How can you learn new words unless you understand what the speakers are referring to?

如果你不了解说话者在指什么，你怎么可能学到新词？

The adult's words would be just sounds with no meaning.

成人说的话就只是一些没有意义的声音。

So when the child hears an adult say a new word, it can learn the of this vocabulary by matching the language with whatever they're both looking at, that is the focus of their joint attention.

所以当孩子听到大人说一个新词时，他们可以通过把这个词与他们正在共同注视的东西对应起来，来学会这个词的意思。

And when the infant itself begins to control their joint attention, to point and in effect to get the adult to name things well, as you might guess, vocabulary learning increases dramatically.

而当婴儿开始掌控他们的共同注意力，比如指东西、实际上引导大人说出名称时，正如你们可能猜到的，词汇学习会迅速增长。

Okay.

好吧。

So over the next two weeks we'll see what happens when infants begin to control joint attention.

在接下来的两周里，我们会观察婴儿开始掌控共同注意时会发生什么。

This will give you insights into everything from language development in infants, to their social and emotional development, and help you understand how to create the best learning environments for them.

这将帮助你了解从婴儿的语言发展到他们的社会和情感发展的一切，

And also to support children who have developmental problems or disabilities.

并帮助你明白如何为他们营造最好的学习环境，

All right, now for that video of some infants who haven't yet learned to make active use of joint attention, along with some who have.

好了，现在我们来看看那段视频，里面有些婴儿还没有学会主动使用共同注意，而有些则已经学会了。

This video really captures the differences.

这段视频确实很好地展示了二者之间的差异。

Some of you may want to do your semester project on how infants actively use this skill, joint attention.

你们当中有些人可能会选择以婴儿如何主动使用这种共同注意技能为学期项目的主题。

So, notice the kinds of situations the researchers in the video make use of to get the infants to demonstrate their joint attention skills.

所以，请注意视频中研究人员是如何设置情境，引导婴儿展示他们的共同注意能力的。

That might prove helpful for when you yourselves work with a group of infants in your project.

这可能会对你们今后在项目中和一组婴儿一起工作时提供帮助。