The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children's Productive Vocabulary Acquisition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4501919 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elly Koutamanis (0000-0003-3422-9121, Centre for Language Studies Radboud University, corresponding author), Gerrit Jan Kootstra (0000-0002-2274-3644, Centre for Language Studies Radboud University), Ton Dijkstra (0000-0003-2514-5866, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University), Sharon Unsworth (0000-0002-0946-2362, Centre for Language Studies Radboud University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 347-378 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Learning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/lang.12666 |
| OpenAlex | W4401303482 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 53 |
This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children simultaneously acquiring two closely related languages (n = 203) or two more distant languages (n = 109) performed extended versions of the LITMUS Cross-Linguistic Lexical Task (Haman et al., 2015), a productive vocabulary test with words varying in their phonological similarity to their translation equivalents. Children speaking closely related languages obtained higher vocabulary scores than children speaking more distant languages, who showed a stronger positive effect of phonological similarity. The effect of language distance on vocabulary was not solely driven by the presence of (near-)identical cognates in the test. These findings show that similarities beyond specific test items and/or beyond the phonological level play a role in vocabulary acquisition
Age of Acquisition · Cognate · Cognition · First language · Language acquisition · Language proficiency · Linguistics · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Phonology · Psycholinguistics · Similarity (geometry) · Test (biology) · Variation (astronomy) · Vocabulary · Vocabulary development · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development
Bilingual Toddlers’ Vocabulary Growth Interacts with Existing Knowledge and Cross-Linguistic Similarity
Diversity in monolingual and multilingual communicative environments and its relation to vocabulary in early childhood
The role of linguistic context and language similarity in the relationship between language exposure and language proficiency in bilingual children
Producing bilinguals through immersion education
The cognate facilitation effect
Multilink
Cross-language activation in children’s speech production
Language selectivity is the exception, not the rule
The Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech
Three languages, one Echo
Cognate effects in picture naming
Foreign language knowledge can influence native language performance in exclusively native contexts
How cross-language similarity and task demands affect cognate recognition
The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system
Assessing the role of current and cumulative exposure in simultaneous bilingual acquisition
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4
Cross-linguistic influence in the simultaneous bilingual child's lexicon
Translation equivalent and cross-language semantic priming in bilingual toddlers
Supporting the development of the bilingual lexicon through translanguaging
The relationship between bilingual exposure and vocabulary development
Vocabulary development in closely-related languages
Cognate facilitation in single- and dual-language contexts in bilingual children’s word processing
Shared syntax and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children
The development of the cognate advantage from elementary to middle school years in French-English bilinguals attending a dual language program in France
Using the peabody picture vocabulary test in L2 children and adolescents
A longitudinal study on the gradual cognate facilitation effect in bilingual children’s Frisian receptive vocabulary
Testing the validity of the Cross-Linguistic Lexical Task as a measure of language proficiency in bilingual children
Lexical retrieval for nouns and verbs in typically developing bilectal children
Cross-language distance influences receptive vocabulary outcomes of bilingual children
L2 Vocabulary Acquisition in Children
Second Language Proficiency and Cross-Language Lexical Activation
What Is Hard to Learn Is Easy to Forget
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |