Learn locally, act globally: Learning language from variation set cues

Variation set structure \u2013 partial overlap of successive utterances in child-directed speech \u2013 has been shown to correlate with progress in children\u2019s acquisition of syntax. We demonstrate the benefits of variation set structure directly: in miniature artificial languages, arranging a certain proportion of utterances in a training corpus in variation sets facilitated word and phrase constituent learning in adults. Our findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms of L1 acquisition by children, and for the development of more efficient algorithms for automatic language acquisition, as well as better methods for L2 instruction