¿Como Hablamos? How Much And When To Teach Toddlers’ Words In A Second Language
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In this present study, we explore two conditions under which monolingual Englishspeaking toddlers (N=12) may learn and retain knowledge of names of familiar objects in a second language. We examined toddlers' ability to learn names of familiar objects in a foreign language given limited exposure (total of 30 minutes). Second, we considered the role of learning schedules on the participants' ability to learn familiar nouns in a foreign language. Specifically, we examined whether toddlers were better able to learn a foreign language object label if they were exposed to Spanish for five (6 minutes) massed sessions (over the course of one week) as opposed to five distributed sessions which were spread apart (over the course of several weeks). Overall, children were able to learn and retain knowledge of six names of familiar objects in Spanish, regardless of learning schedule condition. However, toddlers who were assigned massed learning schedule condition were better able to learn and retain knowledge of labels of familiar objects in a second language, even after a week of second language exposure. Keywords: word learning, second language learning, learning schedule effects, retention, massed vs. distributed learning