早期語言環境對於孩子的語言發展和日後學校表現具關鍵性影響，Hart與Risley發現，來自不同社經地位家庭之嬰幼兒，其零至三歲所聽到的語彙量差異可達3,000萬字，父母親愈常對孩子說話，其字彙量的成長愈快速，並影響日後的學業成就。國外陸續有研究探討相關變項之間的關連。當時，Hart與Risley所使用的研究工具為錄音機，之後再由人工計算所錄到的語言量，非常耗時與費力。所幸，LENA基金會結合跨領域專家研發語言環境分析組（Language ENvironment Analysis, LENA），可錄製嬰幼兒一天中所處環境的語言刺激達16個小時，且經由專門軟體分析後，可得知大人的語言量、小孩語言量、大人與小孩對話量。本文將介紹如何使用此創新科技探討一對新住民母子之溝通與介入成效之監控。

Early language environment is vital to children’s language development and school performance. Hart and Risley (1995) found that number of words that parents addressed to their children between 6-36 months of age varied greatly based on socio-economic status (SES). By age 3, this difference in the words that children heard from poor and professional families reach 30 million (Hart & Risley, 2003). Children who had parents talking more often had accelerated growth in vocabulary. This disparity predicted children’s language skills and school success through the third grade (Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994). While knowledge of the word gap has existed for two decades, to my knowledge there is no study investigating children’s home language environment in Taiwan. This paper introduced an advent technology tool, Language Environment Analysis (LENA), which is used to record children’s day-long home language environment. LENA is used to investigate the communication between a New Taiwanese child and his mother and to monitor intervention effects.