Bilingual word learning—Korean & English
Nan Kim
Mentor: Barbara Sarnecka
This study will investigate the difference between noun learning and number word
learning for bilingual children. The experiment attempts to learn whether children learn
number words and noun words in the same manner. Specifically, the study will try to
determine whether: (1) a child who knows a number word for one language necessarily
knows it in another, unlike with noun words; and (2) learning a number-word is
qualitatively different from learning common nouns. Each child will undergo two
sessions, one conducted in English and one conducted in Korean. Each session has nine
different trials with six trials per block, three containing common noun items, three
containing color word items, and three containing number word items. The hypotheses
are that bilingual children know the number concepts in both languages, unlike the noun
words, and that the bilingual children learn number words dissimilarly to learning noun
words. The preliminary analysis shows no conclusive result because the children tested
so far are performing at ceiling. More data is being collected from younger children to
obtain a conclusive result.