Cross-linguistic influence in the use of objects in Japanese/English simultaneous bilingual acquisition

Aims: This study investigates whether, to what extent, and in which direction interface structure induces cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in the use of objects in Japanese/English simultaneous bilinguals. Design: Year-long observations of parent-child interactions in two two-year-olds were conducted to observe the changes taking place at the earliest stages of development. Data analysis: A total of 48 recording sessions were transcribed and coded using Computational Human Articulatory Theory conventions and were compared with mean length of utterance-matched monolingual data drawn from the CHILDES database. Findings: We report a temporary influence from Japanese to English and a mild influence from English to Japanese. Originality: This study offers evidence of CLI in object use in less-studied language pairs.