The Bilingual Language Learning Experience: An Investigation of the One-Parent-One-Language Strategy in Bilingual Toddlers

Abstract

In early bilingual environments, infants hear and learn two languages from the people they interact with. Bilingual parents are often concerned that learning two languages at once may cause confusion or learning delays for their children, and may follow either a “one-parent-one-language” strategy or use both languages to promote effective language learning at home. However, it is not widely understood how bilingual children learn two languages from different speakers in their environment. One potential challenge for bilingual children is that they have to learn that more than one word can be used to label objects in both languages. To understand this phenomenon, our study assessed 30-42-month-old English-Spanish bilingual toddlers and their ability to learn two labels, one in each language, from different speakers. Across two testing sessions, we examined two different conditions, one in which each speaker used one language consistently, and one in which both speakers used both languages. Using the Looking-While-Listening paradigm, bilingual toddlers were taught two labels for a novel object (one in English and one in Spanish), and then tested on their ability to identify the target word-object pairings. Our results showed that bilingual toddlers are able learn two labels for a single object as expected. We also found that toddlers learn words more effectively in their dominant language than their non-dominant language. Overall, this research suggests that the early language environment shapes learning by the relative amount of each language that children hear, which has a larger impact on word learning compared to who speaks each language. Keywords: bilingual children, word learning, parental language input, one-parent-one-language strategy, early language environment