TY - JOUR
T1 - Bilingual toddlers’ comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages
AU - Potter, Christine E.
AU - Fourakis, Eva
AU - Morin-Lessard, Elizabeth
AU - Byers-Heinlein, Krista
AU - Lew-Williams, Casey
N1 - Funding Information:
Overdeck Education Research Innovation Fund; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant/Award Number: R03HD079779; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant/ Award Number: R03HD079779; Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, Grant/Award Number: 402470-2011; Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture, Grant/Award Number: 2012-NP-145009 and 181013
Funding Information:
We would like to thank the participating families and members of the Princeton Baby Lab, especially Catherine Babiec, Ariella Cohen, and Maritza Gomez, for their help in collecting and coding data. We would also like to thank Tara Rivas and the staff at the Children's Home Society in Trenton, NJ for their assistance in recruiting fam‐ ilies and allowing us use of their space. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD079779), the Overdeck Education Research Innovation Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (402470‐2011), and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (2012‐NP‐145009) and a graduate fellow‐ ship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (181013) to EML.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - In bilingual language environments, infants and toddlers listen to two separate languages during the same key years that monolingual children listen to just one and bilinguals rarely learn each of their two languages at the same rate. Learning to understand language requires them to cope with challenges not found in monolingual input, notably the use of two languages within the same utterance (e.g., Do you like the perro? or ¿Te gusta el doggy?). For bilinguals of all ages, switching between two languages can reduce the efficiency in real-time language processing. But language switching is a dynamic phenomenon in bilingual environments, presenting the young learner with many junctures where comprehension can be derailed or even supported. In this study, we tested 20 Spanish–English bilingual toddlers (18- to 30-months) who varied substantially in language dominance. Toddlers’ eye movements were monitored as they looked at familiar objects and listened to single-language and mixed-language sentences in both of their languages. We found asymmetrical switch costs when toddlers were tested in their dominant versus non-dominant language, and critically, they benefited from hearing nouns produced in their dominant language, independent of switching. While bilingualism does present unique challenges, our results suggest a united picture of early monolingual and bilingual learning. Just like monolinguals, experience shapes bilingual toddlers’ word knowledge, and with more robust representations, toddlers are better able to recognize words in diverse sentences.
AB - In bilingual language environments, infants and toddlers listen to two separate languages during the same key years that monolingual children listen to just one and bilinguals rarely learn each of their two languages at the same rate. Learning to understand language requires them to cope with challenges not found in monolingual input, notably the use of two languages within the same utterance (e.g., Do you like the perro? or ¿Te gusta el doggy?). For bilinguals of all ages, switching between two languages can reduce the efficiency in real-time language processing. But language switching is a dynamic phenomenon in bilingual environments, presenting the young learner with many junctures where comprehension can be derailed or even supported. In this study, we tested 20 Spanish–English bilingual toddlers (18- to 30-months) who varied substantially in language dominance. Toddlers’ eye movements were monitored as they looked at familiar objects and listened to single-language and mixed-language sentences in both of their languages. We found asymmetrical switch costs when toddlers were tested in their dominant versus non-dominant language, and critically, they benefited from hearing nouns produced in their dominant language, independent of switching. While bilingualism does present unique challenges, our results suggest a united picture of early monolingual and bilingual learning. Just like monolinguals, experience shapes bilingual toddlers’ word knowledge, and with more robust representations, toddlers are better able to recognize words in diverse sentences.
KW - bilingualism
KW - language development
KW - language processing
KW - language switching
KW - statistical learning
KW - word representations
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U2 - 10.1111/desc.12794
DO - 10.1111/desc.12794
M3 - Article
C2 - 30582256
AN - SCOPUS:85060055239
SN - 1363-755X
VL - 22
JO - Developmental Science
JF - Developmental Science
IS - 4
M1 - e12794
ER -