English lexical productivity and diversity in Spanish-English bilingual children in Australia

In English-speaking countries such as Australia, the English proficiency of bilingual children, who also speak a heritage language (HL), has persistently been a matter of concern. Research indicates that bilingual children may initially show weaker vocabulary skills than monolingual peers. However, increasing evidence indicates that this gap is not due to bilingualism, but to individual learning experiences. We aimed at contributing to this debate by comparing the lexical productivity of 4 monolingual (English) and 5 simultaneous bilingual (Spanish-English) preschool children. Bayesian analysis revealed similar performance for the two groups, suggesting that bilingualism does not hinder English lexical development. Bilinguals can therefore achieve similar lexical productive and density outcomes as monolingual children before starting school. Implications for models of bilingual language acquisition will be discussed.