Flexible Learning of Multiple Speech Structures in Bilingual Infants
Ágnes Melinda Kovács* and
Jacques Mehler
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.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: agneskovacs{at}mtapi.hu
