Speech perception and vocabulary growth: A longitudinal study of Finnish-Russian bilinguals and Finnish monolinguals from infancy to three years. (July 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Silvén, Maarit; Voeten, Marinus; Kouvo, Anna; Lundén, Maija
• Is Part Of: International journal of behavioral development. Volume 38:Number 4(2014:Jul.)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 332
• Publication Date: 2014-07
• Subjects: bilingual first language acquisition -- learning Finnish and Russian words -- longitudinal study -- speech perception in infancy -- vocabulary growth; Developmental psychology -- Periodicals; Behaviorism (Psychology) -- Periodicals; 150
• DOI: 10.1177/0165025414533748
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0165-0254

Abstract

Growth modeling was applied to monolingual ( N = 26) and bilingual ( N = 28) word learning from 14 to 36 months. Level and growth rate of vocabulary were lower for Finnish-Russian bilinguals than for Finnish monolinguals. Processing of Finnish speech sounds at 7 but not at 11 months predicted level, but not growth rate of vocabulary in both Finnish and Russian; this relationship was the same for monolinguals and bilinguals. The bilinguals' two vocabularies developed differently, showing no acceleration in Russian, the minority language. Even though the bilinguals progressed more slowly in each home language, they were learning at least as many new words as the monolinguals when Finnish and Russian vocabularies were counted together.