Spanish Lexical Accessibility and Vocabulary Acquisition: Catalan Dominant Bilinguals and Spanish Monolinguals Compared

Abstract

In this study it was investigated whether Catalan dominant bilinguals from Girona performed differently on a Spanish vocabulary test in comparison to Spanish monolinguals from Toledo. The test measured both lexical knowledge and lexical accessibility. The test was administered to two groups of bilinguals and monolinguals: one aged 5-6 and another aged 8-9. The monolinguals outperformed the bilinguals at both ages, but most of the Catalan dominant bilinguals fell within monolingual norm at age 8-9, despite the fact that at group level the differences were still observable.