Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants

Ágnes Melinda Kovács, Jacques Mehler

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Children acquire their native language according to a well-defined time frame. Surprisingly, although children raised in bilingual environments have to learn roughly twice as much about language as their monolingual peers, the speed of acquisition is comparable in monolinguals and bilinguals. Here, we show that preverbal 12-month-old bilingual infants have become more flexible at learning speech structures than monolinguals. When given the opportunity to simultaneously learn two different regularities, bilingual infants learned both, whereas monolinguals learned only one of them. Hence, bilinguals may acquire two languages in the time in which monolinguals acquire one because they quickly become more flexible learners.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)611-612
Number of pages2
JournalScience
Volume325
Issue number5940
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Jul 2009
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this