Peer-reviewed article
From Recognition to Production: Receptive and Expressive Cross-Situational Word Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children.
Contino K, Duncan AV, Weaver H, Khandelwal M, Boucher A et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed study examined how bilingualism affects children's ability to learn new words through cross-situational learning, comparing monolingual and bilingual children aged 5-9 years. The research found that both groups performed similarly in understanding new words, but monolingual children produced (spoke) newly learned words more accurately than bilingual children. The findings suggest that language experience and the modality of learning (receptive versus expressive) are important factors in how children acquire vocabulary.
Key points
- Monolingual and bilingual children showed comparable receptive word learning performance
- Monolingual children produced novel words more accurately than bilingual children
- Within bilingual children, greater length of bilingual experience predicted stronger performance in both receptive and expressive learning
- Speaker variability did not significantly affect either receptive or expressive outcomes
- Expressive outcomes appear more sensitive to bilingual experience than receptive outcomes
Limitations
This study focuses on a specific linguistic task (cross-situational word learning) in a laboratory setting with children aged 5-9 years, so findings may not generalize to other language learning contexts, age groups, or real-world language acquisition. The study does not address broader child development outcomes or well-being.
Abstract
This study examined how bilingualism and speaker variability influence children's receptive and expressive cross-situational word learning (CSWL) performance. Effects of bilingualism were assessed both categorically (monolingual vs. bilingual) and continuously (length of bilingual experience). Ninety-five children aged 5-9 years completed a CSWL task under single-speaker and multiple-speaker conditions. Receptive performance was comparable between monolingual and bilingual children and was not influenced by speaker variability. However, within the bilingual sample, greater length of bilingual experience predicted stronger receptive learning. Expressive performance revealed a different pattern: monolinguals produced novel words more accurately than bilinguals. Within bilingual children, longer bilingual experience was associated with higher expressive accuracy. Speaker variability did not significantly affect expressive outcomes, nor did its effects interact with the language group or the length of bilingual experience. These findings suggest that children form representations during CSWL that support partial productions of newly learned words, while also indicating that expressive outcomes may be more sensitive to bilingual experience than receptive outcomes. Together, the results underscore the importance of considering both outcome modality and fine-grained measures of language experience when evaluating bilingual influences on novel word learning.