Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Antovich, Dylan; Estes, Katharine Graf

doi:10.1111/desc.12548

Cited by 78 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…However, when provided with a contextual cue of a change in speaker gender, monolingual infants were also able to learn both rules. In a statistical word segmentation task akin to the current study, 14-month-old monolinguals failed to segment two speech streams, whereas bilinguals succeeded (Antovich & Graf Estes, 2018). This study was different from ours in several ways: infants were somewhat older, the speech streams were congruent and presented in alternating blocks during training, speaker gender was used as a contextual cue, and infants were tested on words versus partwords.…”

Section: G Ener Al Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Some evidence suggests that learning multiple sets of linguistic rules poses a challenge for infant learners, particularly those growing up in monolingual environments (Kovács & Mehler, , ; Potter & Lew‐Williams, ). Most relevant to this study, Antovich and Graf Estes () compared monolingual and bilingual 14‐month‐old infants who were exposed to two congruent speech streams made up of nonoverlapping syllable inventories. The streams were interleaved during familiarization, and additionally, were presented with a contextual cue to separate the speech streams (one stream was spoken by a female and the other by a male).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants

Benitez

Bulgarelli

Byers‐Heinlein

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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Language acquisition depends on the ability to detect and track the distributional properties of speech. Successful acquisition also necessitates detecting changes in those properties, which can occur when the learner encounters different speakers, topics, dialects, or languages. When encountering multiple speech streams with different underlying statistics but overlapping features, how do infants keep track of the properties of each speech stream separately? In four experiments, we tested whether 8‐month‐old monolingual infants (N = 144) can track the underlying statistics of two artificial speech streams that share a portion of their syllables. We first presented each stream individually. We then presented the two speech streams in sequence, without contextual cues signaling the different speech streams, and subsequently added pitch and accent cues to help learners track each stream separately. The results reveal that monolingual infants experience difficulty tracking the statistical regularities in two speech streams presented sequentially, even when provided with contextual cues intended to facilitate separation of the speech streams. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding how infants learn and separate the input when confronted with multiple statistical structures.

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Section: G Ener Al Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants

Benitez

Bulgarelli

Byers‐Heinlein

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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show abstract

“…In another study, Antovich & Graf Estes (2017) tested 14-month-old infants in a simulated bilingual exposure task in which two artificial language streams were interleaved. Again, an indexical cue was present to indicate to learners that multiple streams were present.…”

Section: Real-world Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant Statistical Learning

Saffran

Kirkham

2018

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

322

211

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Perception involves making sense of a dynamic, multimodal environment. In the absence of mechanisms capable of exploiting the statistical patterns in the natural world, infants would face an insurmountable computational problem. Infant statistical learning mechanisms facilitate the detection of structure. These abilities allow the infant to compute across elements in their environmental input, extracting patterns for further processing and subsequent learning. In this selective review, we summarize findings that show that statistical learning is both a broad and flexible mechanism (supporting learning from different modalities across many different content areas) and input specific (shifting computations depending on the type of input and goal of learning). We suggest that statistical learning not only provides a framework for studying language development and object knowledge in constrained laboratory settings, but also allows researchers to tackle real-world problems, such as multilingualism, the role of ever-changing learning environments, and differential developmental trajectories.

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“…Further, a recent study by Antovich and Graf Estes (2017) examined early word segmentation in a bilingual context using artificial languages. They found that while 14month-old monolingual infants could only segment bi-syllabic words in one of two language streams, their bilingual peers were able to segment words from both language streams.…”

Section: Experiments 1: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent computational studies suggest that segmentation performance from a bilingual corpus is only slightly disadvantaged, when compared to that from a monolingual corpus (Fibla Reixachs, 2017). Further, behavioral studies using artificial languages suggest that adults and bilingual infants have the capacity to segment different words from two language streams with different properties (Antovich & Graf Estes, 2017;Weiss, Gerfen, & Mitchel, 2009). In fact, bilingual infants show a slight advantage over monolingual infants in these artificial language tasks (Antovich & Graf Estes, 2017; (Nazzi, Mersad, Sundara, Iakimova & Polka, 2014); thus, while bilingual infants are able to show segmentation in both of their native languages in certain testing conditions, these findings indicate that the strategies they use may be different than those of monolingual infants.…”

Section: Word Segmentation In Bilingual Infantsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Growing up bilingual: examining the language input and word segmentation abilities of bilingual infants

Orena¹

2019

Preprint

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Infants’ early language experiences play a critical role on their language development. In this dissertation, I explored the nature of this relationship in a bilingual context. Specifically, I investigated how bilingual caregivers are providing language input to their infants, and how global measures of this bilingual experience affect early word segmentation (i.e., the ability to recognize words in a sentential context). This work is important for understanding the factors that contribute to the developmental trajectory and processing capacities of bilingual infants. In the first part of this dissertation, I assessed research methods for examining the language input to bilingual infants. To do so, I recruited twenty-one French-English bilingual families with a 10-month-old infant from Montréal, Canada. These families completed language interviews and contributed three full-day recordings at home using the LENA (Language Environment Analysis) recording system. Chapter 2 provides support for using the LENA recording system for investigating the language input in bilingual infants, and Chapter 3 shows that caregivers are reliable at describing their infants’ language experience at home. Next, I described the variability in language experiences within bilingual infants, and how these language experiences might affect word segmentation. In Chapter 4, I recruited 8- and 10-month-old infants from monolingual and bilingual homes. Our findings confirm that monolingual infants can segment bisyllabic words in their native language, but not a non-native language. Critically, our findings reveal that some bilingual infants are able to segment bisyllabic words in both of their native languages by 8-months of age. Interestingly, exploratory analyses suggest that infants’ word segmentation skills in our dual-language task are bolstered if they hear more language mixing from their caregivers. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the growing literature that highlights the wide variability in bilingual language experiences, and their effects on early speech processing skills. Indeed, examining the language experiences and skills of bilingual-learning infants provides us with a unique lens for investigating language acquisition and development.

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Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Cited by 78 publications

References 61 publications

Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants

Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants

Infant Statistical Learning

Growing up bilingual: examining the language input and word segmentation abilities of bilingual infants

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