Novel Word Learning in Bilingual and Monolingual Infants: Evidence for a Bilingual Advantage

Abstract

Previous studies revealing that monolingual and bilingual infants learn similar sounding words with comparable success are largely based on prior investigations involving single-feature changes in the onset consonant of a word. There have been no investigations of bilingual infants' abilities to learn similar sounding words differentiated by vowels. In the current study, 18-month-old bilingual and monolingual infants (n = 90) were compared on their sensitivity to a vowel change when learning the meanings of words. Bilingual infants learned similar sounding words differing by a vowel contrast, whereas monolingual English- and Mandarin-learning infants did not. Findings are discussed in terms of early constraints on novel word learning in bilingual and monolingual infants.

Bilingual versus monolingual infants’ novel word-action mapping before and after first-word production: Influence of developing noun-dominance on perceptual narrowing

“…The present study also suggests a perceptually protracted period of word-action mapping in bilingual preverbal infants in the domain of lexical mapping. Several prior findings have shown that the perceptual sensitivity window, in response to the ambient language environment containing two languages, is protracted for bilinguals relative to that of monolinguals (e.g., Graf Estes et al, 2015; Singh et al, 2017). Consistent with these prior findings, in the present study, the bilingual preverbal infants displayed a protracted perceptual sensitivity window for word-action mappings prior to perceptual narrowing to nouns (prior to word production).…”

Variability and stability in early language acquisition: Comparing monolingual and bilingual infants' speech perception and word recognition

“…The first one relates to the magnitude of the contrast tested (a 1- versus 2-feature place contrast in Fennell et al, 2007, versus Mattock et al, 2010). The second factor is linked to the feature manipulated (consonant place in Fennell et al, 2007; consonant voicing in Fennell & Byers-Heinlein, 2014; vowel contrast in Ramon-Casas et al, 2017 and Singh et al, 2018a). Note that the vowel contrast in Ramon-Casas et al (2017) is the same contrast Catalan–Spanish bilingual 18-to-24-month-olds appeared to fail to process in familiar word form recognition, which suggests that the use of a contrast can be modulated by task demands.…”

The impact of bilingual environments on selective attention in infancy

“…Singh, Fu, Tay, and Golinkoff (2017) investigated the ability of infants to learn words that differed by a vowel contrast (e.g., "bat" and "bet"). Singh, Fu, Tay, and Golinkoff (2017) investigated the ability of infants to learn words that differed by a vowel contrast (e.g., "bat" and "bet").…”

“…Selective attention may also be relevant for infants' ability to detect differences in linguistic structure. Singh, Fu, Tay, and Golinkoff (2017) investigated the ability of infants to learn words that differed by a vowel contrast (e.g., "bat" and "bet"). Eighteen-month-old infants…”