Language Acquisition: Toddlers As Data Miners

In one of my teaching practices last academic year I was asked by my mentor why I was including material in my lesson plans that went beyond what the kids needed (an interesting comment in itself for what it might be seen to imply about our education sysytem -rightly or wrongly in this case, I'm not sure). My reply was that we learn better often by being able to put things into a broader context or to link things up with other facts or perspectives that interest us more.
Well, I think I see here a glimmer of something that that may somewhat corroborate that:

In the adult version of the study, which used the same eye-tracking technology used in the Cognition study, adults were taught 18 words in just six minutes. Instead of viewing two images at a time, they simultaneously were shown anywhere from three to four, while hearing the same number of words. The adults, like the children, learned significantly more than would be expected by chance.

Doubly interesting and perhaps germane to my Homo Loquens writing project, is the fact that this is related to language learning. My emerging thesis is that language and learning are important partners and may involve common or similar systems in the brain and mind. I think the theological reflection on that will involve noting the image of God is arguably about, inter alia, dominion which seems to be exercised through understanding (I think that Brueggemann takes that line) which is itself reflective of God's own work of speaking things into existence and ordering them 'verbally' (noting for careful use the anthropomorphism here).
New Thoughts On Language Acquisition: Toddlers As Data Miners