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Effect of speaker certainty on novel word learning in monolingual and bilingual children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2018

MILIJANA BUAC ,
AURÉLIE TAUZIN-LARCHÉ ,
EMILY WEISBERG  and
MARGARITA KAUSHANSKAYA
MILIJANA BUAC
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
AURÉLIE TAUZIN-LARCHÉ
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
EMILY WEISBERG
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
MARGARITA KAUSHANSKAYA*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
*
Address for correspondence: Margarita Kaushanskaya, Waisman Center Room 476, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705kaushanskaya@wisc.edu
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Abstract

In the present study, we examined the effect of speaker certainty on word-learning performance in English-speaking monolingual (MAge = 6.40) and Spanish–English bilingual (MAge = 6.58) children. No group differences were observed when children learned novel words from a certain speaker. However, bilingual children were more willing to learn novel words from an uncertain speaker than their monolingual peers. These findings indicate that language experience influences how children weigh cues to speaker credibility during learning and suggest that children with more diverse linguistic backgrounds (i.e., bilinguals) are less prone to prioritizing information based on speaker certainty.

Keywords

bilingualismspeaker certaintyword learning
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , August 2019 , pp. 883 - 895
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*The present project was supported by NIDCD Grants R03 DC010465 and R01 DC011750, and Training Grant T32 DC005359-10. The authors wish to express gratitude to all of the families who participated in the present study, the numerous schools in the Madison Metropolitan school district who generously aided in participant recruitment, and the members of the Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab for their invaluable assistance with data collection.

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