Article2007

Using Speech Sounds to Guide Word Learning: The Case of Bilingual Infants

Christopher T. Fennell · Krista Byers‐Heinlein · Janet F. Werker

188 citations0/0 files storedChild Development

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Language Development and Disorders Phonetics and Phonology Research Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of bilingualism, language acquisition research has focused on monolingual infants. Monolinguals cannot learn minimally different words (e.g., "bih" and "dih") in a laboratory task until 17 months of age (J. F. Werker, C. T. Fennell, K. M. Corcoran, & C. L. Stager, 2002). This study was extended to 14- to 20-month-old bilingual infants: a heterogeneous sample (English and another language; N = 48) and two homogeneous samples (28 English-Chinese and 25 English-French infants). In all samples, bilinguals did not learn similar-sounding words until 20 months, indicating that they use relevant language sounds (i.e., consonants) to direct word learning developmentally later than monolinguals, possibly due to the increased cognitive load of learning two languages. However, this developmental pattern may be adaptive for bilingual word learning.

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References

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Cited by

2012Lexical access and vocabulary development in very young bilinguals 2011Bilingual beginnings as a lens for theory development: PRIMIR in focus 2012Infant‐Directed Prosody Helps Infants Map Sounds to Meanings 2010Rhythmic distance between languages affects the development of speech perception in bilingual infants 2009The first steps in word learning are easier when the shoes fit: comparing monolingual and bilingual infants 2012Language nonselective lexical access in bilingual toddlers

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