From Recognition to Production: Receptive and Expressive Cross-Situational Word Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

This study examined how bilingualism and speaker variability influence children’s receptive and expressive cross-situational word learning (CSWL) performance. Effects of bilingualism were assessed both categorically (monolingual vs. bilingual) and continuously (length of bilingual experience). Ninety-five children aged 5–9 years completed a CSWL task under single-speaker and multiple-speaker conditions. Receptive performance was comparable between monolingual and bilingual children and was not influenced by speaker variability. However, within the bilingual sample, greater length of bilingual experience predicted stronger receptive learning. Expressive performance revealed a different pattern: monolinguals produced novel words more accurately than bilinguals. Within bilingual children, longer bilingual experience was associated with higher expressive accuracy. Speaker variability did not significantly affect expressive outcomes, nor did its effects interact with the language group or the length of bilingual experience. These findings suggest that children form representations during CSWL that support partial productions of newly learned words, while also indicating that expressive outcomes may be more sensitive to bilingual experience than receptive outcomes. Together, the results underscore the importance of considering both outcome modality and fine-grained measures of language experience when evaluating bilingual influences on novel word learning.