Do bilinguals access 'simpler' words than monolinguals? Evidence from story-telling

Bilinguals often have a harder time accessing/retrieving words for production than monolinguals. A common explanation is that bilinguals use words in each of their languages less often than monolinguals and therefore have weaker links to words. Most previous research has focused on single-word production.

In this talk, speaker Professor Elena Nicoladis from the University of Columbia willI review work from several studies that have tested whether bilinguals use simpler words (e.g., higher frequency words, more cognates) than monolinguals while telling a story. The bilinguals spoke several different language pairs (French and English, Hindi and English, Mandarin and English, Spanish and English) and the participants came from different age groups (preschoolers through adults). The results do not support for the hypothesis that bilinguals use more cognates than monolinguals. Moreover, the results do not always show clear evidence that bilinguals use higher frequency words than monolinguals.

Professor Nicoladis will discuss some possible reasons that lexical access and retrieval may be easier in a story-telling context than in single-word contexts.

Please note that this is a hybrid seminar, that will be streaming via Zoom: attendees can view online, or attend in-person collectively at 52 Prichatts Road, Room 412 (G9 on the campus map).