Identical Communicative Challenges in Learning Languages by Bilingual and Monolingual Children

Bilinguals communicate differently when they are with monolinguals and when they are with bilinguals who share their languages. Whereas they avoid using their other language(s) with monolinguals, they may call upon it (or them) when interacting with bilinguals, either by changing over completely to the other language(s) or by bringing elements of the other language(s) into the language they are speaking. Word comprehension and production are critical features of young children’s language development. Parents eagerly await their child’s first words, take pride when their child begins to understand them or says something, and worry if their child appears slower in language than their child’s friends. When children grow up hearing two languages from the start, parents often expect them to acquire language at a slower rate. Is this expectation based on a misconception or is it actually the case that at a given point in early development bilingual children know fewer words in each language than do monolingual children? In the present study we address this question by comparing the comprehension and production vocabularies of bilingual and monolingual children.