Double it up: Vocabulary size comparisons between UK bilingual and monolingual toddlers

Abstract

AbstractWe compared vocabulary sizes in comprehension and production between bilingual toddlers growing up in the United Kingdom (UK) and age‐matched UK English monolinguals (12–36 months old) using parent‐report vocabulary questionnaires. We found that bilingual toddlers' vocabulary sizes in English were smaller than the vocabulary sizes of their monolingual peers. Notably, this vocabulary gap was not found when groups were compared on conceptual vocabulary in comprehension. Conceptual scoring also reduced the vocabulary gap in production but group differences were still significant. Bilingual toddlers knew more words than monolinguals when words across their two languages were added together, for both comprehension and production. This large total vocabulary size could be attributed to a high proportion of doublets (cross‐linguistic word pairs with the same meaning) in bilinguals' vocabularies. These findings are discussed in relation to language exposure, facilitation from cross‐linguistic overlap and maturation constraints on vocabulary size.