Lexical-Semantic Development in Bilingual Toddlers at 18 and 24 Months

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Stephanie De Anda¹  Margaret Friend² 

[1] Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences, University of Oregon, United States;Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, United States

关键词: bilingual;    word recognition;    toddlers;    translation equivalents;    vocabulary;    Spanish;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.508363

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

An important question in early bilingual first language acquisition concerns the development of lexical-semantic associations within and across two languages. The present study investigates the earliest emergence of lexical-semantic priming at 18 and 24 months in Spanish-English bilinguals ( N = 32) and its relation to vocabulary knowledge within and across languages. Results indicate a remarkably similar pattern of development between monolingual and bilingual children, such that lexical-semantic development begins at 18 months and strengthens by 24 months. Further, measures of cross-language lexical knowledge are stronger predictors of children’s lexical-semantic processing skill than measures that capture single-language knowledge only. This suggests that children make use of both languages when processing semantic information. Together these findings inform the understanding of the relation between lexical-semantic breadth and organization in the context of dual language learners in early development.

【 授权许可】

CC BY