Aurreko ekintzak: Margarita Kaushanskaya. Learning from Dual-Language Input

What: Learning from Dual-Language Input

Where: BCBL Zoom Room # 2 (online talk) (If you would like to attend to this meeting reserve at info@bcbl.eu)

Who: Professor Margarita Kaushanskaya, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences Disorders of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, US.

When:  Thursday,  Sept 14th at 02:00 PM.

While code-switching and distributed exposure have been at the core of psycholinguistic and development research in bilingualism, we know very little about how different types of dual-language input shape learning and language outcomes in bilingual children. Recent studies in my lab have examined this question using both correlational and experimental methods. In this talk, I will highlight a series of word-learning experiments, where we queried the effects of code-switched and distributed input on bilingual children’s word learning. The findings reveal a complex tapestry of findings, with distributed exposure yielding reduced learning outcomes, but with code-switched input yielding null or enhanced learning outcomes when contrasted with single-language input. To complicate matters, words learned in single-language contexts consolidate over time, while words learned in code-switched contexts do not, although this last finding awaits replication. Notably, across all experiments, manipulations of dual-language input have comparable effects on children representing a wide range of language abilities, from typical language to Developmental Language Disorder. Ultimately, I suggest that word-learning experiments, beyond answering critical theoretical questions, can serve as an effective bridge between laboratory-based work and intervention studies whose goal it is to discover the optimal way of combining languages in the input to bilingual children.