Abstract
The present study examined whether bilingualism facilitates acquisition of novel words in adults with different language histories. Word-learning performance was tested in monolingual English speakers, early English—Spanish bilinguals, and early English—Mandarin bilinguals. Novel words were phonologically unfamiliar to all participants, and they were acquired in association with their English translations. At testing, both bilingual groups outperformed the monolingual group. These findings indicate that bilingualism facilitates word-learning performance in adults, and they suggest a general bilingual advantage for novel word learning.
Article PDF
References
Bialystok, E. (1999). Cognitive complexity and attentional control in the bilingual mind. Child Development, 70, 636–644.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: Evidence from the Simon task. Psychology & Aging, 19, 290–303.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Ryan, J. (2006). Executive control in a modified antisaccade task: Effects of aging and bilingualism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 1341–1354.
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., & Kwan, E. (2005). Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: Interactions among languages and writing systems. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 43–61.
Bialystok, E., Majumder, S., & Martin, M. M. (2003). Developing phonological awareness: Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 27–44.
Bialystok, E., & Martin, M. M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science, 7, 325–339.
Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2001). Evidence of early language discrimination abilities in infants from bilingual environments. Infancy, 2, 29–49.
Bruck, M., & Genesee, F. (1995). Phonological awareness in young second language learners. Journal of Child Language, 22, 307–324.
Colzato, L. S., Bajo, M. T., van den Wildenberg, W., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., & Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 34, 302–312.
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106, 59–86.
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). PPVT-III: Peabody picture vocabulary test (3rd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Ellis, N. C., & Beaton, A. (1993). Psycholinguistic determinants of foreign language vocabulary learning. Language Learning, 43, 559–617.
Gupta, P. (2003). Examining the relationship between word learning, nonword repetition, and immediate serial recall in adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A, 1213–1236.
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The language experience and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research, 50, 940–967.
Martínez-Celdrán, E., Fernández-Planas, A. M., & Carrera-Sabaté, J. (2003). Castilian Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33, 255–259.
Papagno, C., Valentine, T., & Baddeley, A. (1991). Phonological short-term memory and foreign-language vocabulary learning. Journal of Memory & Language, 30, 331–347.
Papagno, C., & Vallar, G. (1995). Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48A, 98–107.
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory, and foreign-language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45A, 21–50.
Van Hell, J. G., & Mahn, A. C. (1997). Keyword mnemonics versus rote rehearsal: Learning concrete and abstract foreign words by experienced and inexperienced learners. Language Learning, 47, 507–546.
Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (1999). Comprehensive test of phonological processing: CTOPP. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, Inc.
Wan, I.-P., & Jaeger, J. J. (2003). The phonological representation of Taiwan Mandarin vowels: A psycholinguistic study. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 12, 205–257.
Williams, K. T. (1997). Expressive vocabulary test. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kaushanskaya, M., Marian, V. The bilingual advantage in novel word learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 705–710 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.705
Received:
Accepted:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.705
