Monolingual and Bilingual Infants' Language Acquisitions: Can Infants Learn Similar-Sounding Words Online Using the Switch Task

Abstract

Summary When it comes to studying bilingualism and language acquisition in kids and infants, minimal pair-word learning is of particular importance due to this process being at play within a language and between languages. Having to discriminate between similar-sounding words within a language (i.e., dye & bye) and across languages (i.e., elephant & éléphant) is a complex task. The assumption that researchers have had since the early 1980s is that bilinguals may be better at certain aspects of word learning due to having to manage two languages concurrently. Previous studies have found mixed results regarding minimal pair word learning for both monolingual and bilingual groups depending on the ages. Discriminating between similar-sounding words is typically challenging before the age of 17 to 20 months regardless of the number of languages a child is learning. To investigate this question, we tested 19 participants between the ages of 14 and 18 months of age (14 monolingual and 5 bilingual). The level of attrition during the habituation trial or testing phase of the experiment made the data collection particularly difficult. Infants were recruited online from the Ottawa-Gatineau region and in Canada and the United States via a website for parents wishing to participate in various studies. During test trials, we recorded the looking time to the correctly and incorrectly labeled objects. Participants' performances were analyzed considering their language background, age, and socioeconomic status. Participants in the study were not able to discriminate between the two similar-sounding words regardless of their demographics. In conclusion, even while having access to visual cues from the speaker, monolingual and bilingual infants were not able to successfully learn similar-sounding words. Future studies should use a similar task using a live speaker via Zoom as opposed to a pre-recorded video to investigate whether the results would be different.