Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants. Kovács, Á. M. & Mehler, J. Science, 325(5940):611–612, 2009.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
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.
@Article{Kovacs2009a,
  author      = {\'Agnes Melinda Kov\'acs and Jacques Mehler},
  journal     = {Science},
  title       = {Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants.},
  year        = {2009},
  number      = {5940},
  pages       = {611--612},
  volume      = {325},
  abstract    = {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.},
  doi         = {10.1126/science.1173947},
  keywords    = {Child Language; Female; Humans; Infant; Language Development; Learning; Male; Multilingualism; Speech Perception},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {19589962},
  school      = {Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati-SISSA, Via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy. agneskovacs@mtapi.hu},
  timestamp   = {2010.11.03},
}

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