The topic I have chosen for my final paper is on bilingual infants versus their monolingual peers. I am interested in learning how language is acquired for bilingual infants and if the preconceived notion of them being placed at a disadvantage is really true. I would like to examine the different advantages and disadvantages bilingual infants face while being exposed to 2 languages at a time. I would also like to see at what rate certain milestones are hit compared to monolingual infants. Additionally, I would like to see how bilingual infants are able to perform at specific tasks compared to their monolingual peers. I chose this topic because I have always been interested in others who are bilingual, like my best friend and roommate, who has grown up learning both Spanish and English from birth. I am interested in finding out the process of learning 2 languages at the same time from people like her. Overall, I believe it would be really fascinating to discover the process infants take when acquiring not only one new language, but two.
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M., & Mehler, J. (2009). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilinguaI infants. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 106(16), 6556-6560.
• In this study, the researchers wanted to know if bilingual infants will outperform monolingual infants on tasks that involve executive functions such as planning and attentional control. They found that bilingual infants were able to adapt their learned responses to the changing tasks and as a result, were able to outperform monolingual infants who were unable to adapt their previous learned responses to the changing tasks.
Fennell, C. T., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2007). Using Speech Sounds to Guide Word Learning: The Case of Bilingual Infants. Child Development, 78(5), 1510-1525.
M., & Mehler, J. (2009). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilinguaI infants. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 106(16), 6556-6560.
• In this study, the researchers wanted to know if bilingual infants will outperform monolingual infants on tasks that involve executive functions such as planning and attentional control. They found that bilingual infants were able to adapt their learned responses to the changing tasks and as a result, were able to outperform monolingual infants who were unable to adapt their previous learned responses to the changing tasks.
Fennell, C. T., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2007). Using Speech Sounds to Guide Word Learning: The Case of Bilingual Infants. Child Development, 78(5), 1510-1525.