Monolingual and bilingual adults can learn foreign language words implicitly

![CDATA[Assessing word learning methods has important implications for classroom settings and developing language learning programs. Previous research has shown that adults can learn native-language words implicitly [1] and second-language (L2) words explicitly [2]. We tested whether adults could learn L2 words and attend to phonetic detail implicitly using cross-situational word learning, where participants make word-object associations by tracking word-object co-occurrences across learning trials. Results show that participants learned L2 words implicitly with above-chance accuracy, and that the amount of phonetic detail needed to distinguish words determined their accuracy levels. We discuss how these results compare to explicit L2 word learning.]]