Metacognitive verbs do not show a cross-language gap: An investigation of metacognitive and concrete verbs in bilingual children

Previous research on bilingual vocabulary has focussed largely on words for imaginable objects and actions (e.g., ‘apple’, ‘write’), but did not consider abstract words. We looked for a disproportion across two languages (a cross-language gap) in bilingual children’s knowledge of concrete verbs (e.g., ‘jump’, ‘drink’) and metacognitive verbs (e.g., ‘think’, ‘know’). We also investigated the effects of language exposure and age on bilinguals’ knowledge of both concrete and metacognitive verbs. Thirty-nine Polish–English children aged 4;0–7;7 living in the United Kingdom performed vocabulary tasks in both languages: subtasks from Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs) measuring concrete verbs comprehension and production, and metacognitive vocabulary task (METVOC) measuring metacognitive verbs comprehension. Information on children’s cumulative exposure (CE) to each language was collected via parental reports. The amount of metacognitive talk children received in Polish was obtained from parental oral semi-structured narratives. Mixed-effects regression models were fitted separately for each task. A cross-language gap was observed for comprehension of concrete verbs, but metacognitive verbs did not show a cross-language gap. In production of concrete verbs, the English scores showed a steeper increase over age than the Polish scores. CE affected only production of concrete verbs. Correlational analyses showed children’s knowledge of metacognitive verbs in Polish (but not in English) was related to parental metacognitive talk in Polish. To date, few studies on bilingual children focused on words beyond those referring to imaginable objects and actions, and no study has explored both concrete and metacognitive vocabulary knowledge in bilinguals. A cross-language gap was observed for bilinguals’ concrete verbs, but metacognitive verbs showed a carry-over effect across languages. The two categories of verbs were also related to different types of linguistic input. While CE affected production of concrete verbs, parental metacognitive talk supported children’s knowledge of metacognitive verbs, but only in the language it was provided in.