Using speech sounds to guide word learning: The case of bilingual infants (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2014
Previous research indicates that monolingual infants have difficulty learning minimal pairs (i.e., words differing by one phoneme) produced by a speaker uncharacteristic of their language environment and that bilinguals might share this difficulty. To clearly reveal infants’ underlying phonological representations, we minimized task demands by embedding target words in naming phrases, using a fully crossed, between-subjects experimental design. We tested 17-month-old French-English bilinguals’ (N 1⁄4 30) and English monolinguals’ (N 1⁄4 31) learning of a minimal pair (/kεm/ – /gεm/) produced by an adult bilingual or monolingual. Infants learned the minimal pair only when the speaker matched their language environment. This vulnerability to subtle changes in word pronunciation reveals that neither monolingual nor bilingual 17-month-olds possess fully generalizable phonological representations.
Bilingual beginnings to learning words
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2009
"At the macrostructure level of language milestones, language acquisition follows a nearly identical course whether children grow up with one or with two languages. However, at the microstructure level, experimental research is revealing that the same proclivities and learning mechanisms that support language acquisition unfold somewhat differently in bilingual versus monolingual environments. This paper synthesizes recent findings in the area of early bilingualism by focusing on the question of how bilingual infants come to apply their phonetic sensitivities to word learning, as they must to learn minimal pair words (e.g. ‘cat’ and ‘mat’). To this end, the paper reviews antecedent achievements by bilinguals throughout infancy and early childhood in the following areas: language discrimination and separation, speech perception, phonetic and phonotactic development, word recognition, word learning and aspects of conceptual development that underlie word learning. Special consideration is given to the role of language dominance, and to the unique challenges to language acquisition posed by a bilingual environment. Keywords: bilingualism; language development; infancy;"
The development of phonetic representation in bilingual and monolingual infants
Applied Psycholinguistics, 2007
The development of native language phonetic representations in bilingual infants was compared to that of monolingual infants. Infants (ages 6–8, 10–12, and 14–20 months) from English–French or English-only environments were tested on their ability to discriminate a French and an English voice onset time distinction. Although 6- to 8-month-olds responded similarly irrespective of language environment, by 10–12 months both groups of infants displayed language-specific perceptual abilities: the monolinguals demonstrated realignment to the native English boundary whereas the bilinguals began discriminating both native boundaries. This suggests that infants exposed to two languages from birth are equipped to phonetically process each as a native language and the development of phonetic representation is neither delayed nor compromised by additional languages.
How infants respond to familiar and novel words: comparing bilinguals and monolinguals
2006
Abstract Infants growing up bilingual provide a unique window into how the language environment interacts with word learning and word comprehension mechanisms. The present studies used a preferential looking paradigm to investigate monolingual and bilingual 18-month-old infants' responses to familiar and novel words. Monolinguals and bilinguals both responded to familiar words with increased attention to the target object.
Acquisition and Discrimination of Language in Simultaneous-Bilingual Infants
Polygence Research Academy, 2022
This review examines the neurocognitive correlates of simultaneous language acquisition, primarily focusing on children under the age of 14. It will examine the associated linguistic and neurological processes including the following: discrimination and selection, prosodic classification, inhibitory control, and code switching. These processes employ cognitive systems unique from those of monolingual communication and even cause alterations in neuroanitomical structure. Analysis of these alterations will be presented in the forms of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Additionally, the review will also investigate the presence of a developmental disparity between monolinguals and bilinguals, considering several major hypotheses regarding causation and seeking to determine long-term impact.
Bilingualism in infancy: First steps in perception and comprehension
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2008
Many children grow up in bilingual families and acquire two first languages. Emerging research is advancing the view that the capacity to acquire language can be applied equally to two languages as to one but that bilingual and monolingual acquisition nonetheless differ in some nontrivial ways. To probe the first steps toward acquisition, researchers recently have begun to use experimental methods to study preverbal bilingual infants. We review the literature in this growing field, focusing on how infants growing up bilingual use surface acoustic information to separate, categorize and begin to learn their two languages. These new data invite the expansion of standard linguistic theories to account for how a single architecture can support the acquisition of two languages simultaneously.
The relation of input factors to lexical learning by bilingual infants
Applied Psycholinguistics, 1997
ABSTRACTThe bilingual child is seen as a unique source of information about the relation between input and intake. The strength of the association between language exposure estimates and vocabulary learning was examined for 25 simultaneous bilingual infants (ages 8 to 30 months) with differing patterns of exposure to the languages being learned. Using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories, standardized parent report forms in English and Spanish, the percentage of all words that were known in each language was calculated and then plotted against the estimates of language input (also in percentages). A significant correlation was found, r(25)= .82, p < .001. The correlation was also strong when examined point-by-point, even for children whose language environments changed by more than 20%; between observations, although it was not reliable at lower levels of exposure to Spanish. Especially for children with less input in the minority language, the factors which appear...
The development of associative word learning in monolingual and bilingual infants
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2013
Abstract Children growing up bilingual face a unique linguistic environment. The current study investigated whether early bilingual experience influences the developmental trajectory of associative word learning, a foundational mechanism for lexical acquisition. Monolingual and bilingual infants (N= 98) were tested on their ability to learn dissimilar-sounding words (lif and neem) in the Switch task.