Effects of language mixing on bilingual children's word learning

TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of language mixing on bilingual children's word learning

AU - Byers-Heinlein, Krista

AU - Jardak, Amel

AU - Fourakis, Eva

AU - Lew-Williams, Casey

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

PY - 2022/1/26

Y1 - 2022/1/26

N2 - Language mixing is common in bilingual children's learning environments. Here, we investigated effects of language mixing on children's learning of new words. We tested two groups of 3-year-old bilinguals: French-English (Experiment 1) and Spanish-English (Experiment 2). Children were taught two novel words, one in single-language sentences (Look! Do you see the dog on the teelo?) and one in mixed-language sentences with a mid-sentence language switch (Look! Do you see the chien/perro on the walem?). During the learning phase, children correctly identified novel targets when hearing both single-language and mixed-language sentences. However, at test, French-English bilinguals did not successfully recognize the word encountered in mixed-language sentences. Spanish-English bilinguals failed to recognize either word, which underscores the importance of examining multiple bilingual populations. This research suggests that language mixing may sometimes hinder children's encoding of novel words that occur downstream, but leaves open several possible underlying mechanisms.

AB - Language mixing is common in bilingual children's learning environments. Here, we investigated effects of language mixing on children's learning of new words. We tested two groups of 3-year-old bilinguals: French-English (Experiment 1) and Spanish-English (Experiment 2). Children were taught two novel words, one in single-language sentences (Look! Do you see the dog on the teelo?) and one in mixed-language sentences with a mid-sentence language switch (Look! Do you see the chien/perro on the walem?). During the learning phase, children correctly identified novel targets when hearing both single-language and mixed-language sentences. However, at test, French-English bilinguals did not successfully recognize the word encountered in mixed-language sentences. Spanish-English bilinguals failed to recognize either word, which underscores the importance of examining multiple bilingual populations. This research suggests that language mixing may sometimes hinder children's encoding of novel words that occur downstream, but leaves open several possible underlying mechanisms.

KW - bilingualism

KW - children

KW - code switching

KW - language mixing

KW - word learning

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85114285494

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85114285494#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1017/S1366728921000699

DO - 10.1017/S1366728921000699

M3 - Article

C2 - 35399292

SN - 1366-7289

VL - 25

SP - 55

EP - 69

JO - Bilingualism

JF - Bilingualism

IS - 1

ER -