- Mean length of utterance
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Mean Length of Utterance (or MLU) is a measure of linguistic productivity in children. It is traditionally calculated by collecting 100 utterances spoken by a child and dividing the number of morphemes by the number of utterances. A higher MLU is taken to indicate a higher level of language proficiency.
A study by Bishop and Adams (1990) suggests that MLU at 4.5 is a good predictor of reading ability at age 8. Nonetheless MLU is considered controversial, and should not be used as the only diagnostic measure of language proficiency in children.
See also
References
- Bishop, D. V. M., & Adams, C. (1990). A prospective study of the relationship between specific language impairment, phonological disorders and reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 31, 1027–1050.
External links
- The Effect of Coffee Consumption on Adults’ Average MLU at the Breakfast Table: A humorous article demonstrating some of the criticisms of MLU—namely that extra-linguistic factors can greatly affect MLU.
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