Bilingual and monolingual children's use of two lexical acquisition heuristics

Abstract

Children's heuristics for word learning have been the focus of much research, but little is known about bilinguals' and monolinguals' comparative use of them. In this study, 36 Serbian/ English bilinguals and 42 English monolinguals, who were between 5 and 8 years old and lived in the same neighborhoods in the United States, received a successive name training assessment of two heuristics: criterial use of highlighted features and preservation of mutual exclusivity. Older children employed both heuristics more often than younger ones. Monolinguals were more likely than bilinguals to interpret a highlighted feature as a necessary condition for applying a new English object name, but the groups did not differ in their tendency to maintain mutual exclusivity between the extensions of two novel English labels.

Monolingual and bilingual children’s use of mutual exclusivity in the naming of whole objects

“…Because the PPVT has not been standardized for Urdu, we were unable to determine the age level of the children's vocabulary. The Wnding that bilingual children knew English better than Urdu is consistent with past studies that have shown a similar advantage for English (Bialystok, ShenWeld, & Codd, 2000;Davidson et al, 1997;Merriman & Kutlesic, 1993). In fact, it is possible that these diVerences would have been greater for the older children if the PPVT had been administered beyond Plate 50.…”

“…Although monolingual and bilingual adults have been found to use mutual exclusivity to the same extent in language-learning situations (Au & Glusman, 1990), at least several studies have found diVerences in monolingual and bilingual children's use of language-learning principles, particularly those based on mutual exclusivity (e.g., Davidson et al, 1997;Merriman & Kutlesic, 1993). For example, Davidson and colleagues (1997) found that monolingual 6-year-olds were more likely than their bilingual peers to use mutual exclusivity rules on ambiguous and rejection tests.…”

“…Assessment of their use of the highlighted feature was based on their selections. Merriman and Kutlesic (1993) found a greater tendency for the monolinguals than the bilinguals to interpret a highlighted feature as necessary for the use of a novel noun. Although this may have been due in part to monolinguals' experience with English given that English was the second language for the Serbian American children tested, the results suggest that "monolingual and bilingual acquisition fosters the development of diVerent word learning skills and expectations" (p. 229).…”

“…Merriman and Kutlesic (1993) found that monolinguals were more likely than bilinguals (English/Serbian) to interpret a highlighted feature as a necessary condition for applying a new English object name. In their study, two sets of novel objects were used: either spheres to which sponges or other materials had been attached or toy motorcycles to (from) which various parts had been added (subtracted).…”

“…To illustrate, children may use a "mutual exclusivity principle," limiting potential word meanings by assuming that labels for objects are mutually exclusive or have only one name (for a discussion, see Woodward, 2000). Researchers have found that both monolingual (e.g., Merriman & Bowman, 1989;Waxman & Senghas, 1992) and bilingual children (Au & Glusman, 1990;Davidson, Jergovic, Imami, & Theodos, 1997;Merriman & Kutlesic, 1993) use mutual exclusivity in ambiguous situations. To illustrate, suppose that a child sees a key and an unfamiliar object from the inside of a computer.…”