Novel Word Learning in Children Who Are Bilingual: Comparison to Monolingual Peers

Abstract

Purpose We compared novel word learning in 2nd-grade children with typical development who were Spanish–English bilinguals to English monolinguals to understand word learning in bilingual children. Method Children (monolinguals n = 167, bilinguals n = 76) engaged in 5 computer-based tasks that assessed word learning in 6 different contexts. The tasks measured children's ability to link novel names with novel objects/actions, make decisions about the accuracy of those names and objects/actions, recognize the semantic features of the objects/actions, and produce the novel names. For analysis, we used Bayesian repeated-measures analyses of covariance with Bayesian independent-samples t tests to clarify interactions. Results Monolingual and bilingual children differed in some, but not most, word learning situations. There was at least moderate evidence that bilingual children were less accurate at naming in 1 condition and at detecting mispronunciations in 3 of 6 contexts and were less accurate at judging semantic features of a referent when that referent was paired with orthographic information. Discussion Among children with typical development, there were few differences in novel word learning between monolingual and bilingual participants. When differences did occur, they suggested that bilinguals were more accepting of phonological variations of word productions than their monolingual peers.

Spoken Word Learning Differences Among Children With Dyslexia, Concomitant Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorder, and Typical Development

“…Names were CVCCVC structures (except for the four-syllable names, which were CVCCVCCVCCVC structures) with low English phonotactic probability and no phonological neighbors in English. The Appendix has a full list of the names, the foils for the names, and their phonotactic probabilities (Alt et al, 2019).…”

“…It could also help us examine more closely differences in semantic learning observed primarily in the dyslexia + DLD group and whether this may be associated with having the concomitant disorder of DLD itself. These problems could be differentially related to attention or executive function (e.g., Gray et al, 2017Gray et al, , 2019, which may differ in children with DLD and dyslexia + DLD.…”

Vocabulary limitations undermine bilingual children’s reading comprehension despite bilingual cognitive strengths

“…The novel-word learning skills are fundamental for second language proficiency and have been associated with vocabulary (Alt et al, 2019), word reading (Warmington & Hulme, 2011) as well as working memory and EF skills (Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2009). Most notably, in one study on Hindi-English bilingual adults, Warmington et al (2018) found that bilingual advantage in novel-word learning was related to bilinguals' enhanced cognitive control skills (working memory and inhibition skills).…”

L'identification d'un trouble du développement du langage oral chez les enfants bilingues français-portugais

“…Disadvantages were found for picture naming of English-like novel words, possibly explained by the greater familiarity of monolingual children with the English sound system and in a mispronunciation task involving English phonology (Alt et al, 2019), possibly explained by the greater leniency of bilingual children due to their greater exposure to accented speech. However, many studies find no differences between monolingual and bilinguals' learning of new words (e.g., receptive tasks in , noun learning in Skoruppa, 2019, highlighting the clinical interest of this task to detect true language difficulties beyond insufficient exposure in children with DLD.…”

“…Research on children has shown an advantage for bilingual children in certain executive functions (e.g., working memory) and metalinguistic skills (e.g., ability to manipulate syllables and phonemes, Adesope et al, 2010) that can facilitate their learning, especially in more challenging contexts. Because of their exposure to two languages, bilingual children may have developed linguistic processing systems that are simply more efficient than their monolingual peers, potentially resulting in a bilingual advantage in word learning (Alt et al, 2019). However, it is important to mention that there is no consensus about a real advantage of bilingual children in terms of their executive functioning .…”