The article presents a design-theoretic analysis of the paired repetition method as a new model of experimental planning in the study of early bilingual development. The work is conducted within a cognitive-psycholinguistic framework that integrates evidence on early grammatical generalization, speech segmentation mechanisms, and discourse-based support during sentence reproduction. The study draws upon a comparative synthesis of recent international publications addressing grammar acquisition, cognitive strategy formation, and the assessment of linguistic abilities in bilingual children. Particular attention is given to substantiating paired repetition as a theoretical construct that combines the cognitive sensitivity of early language acquisition with the ecological validity of contextual tasks typical of school-age assessment. The article elaborates the principles of integrating segmentation and discourse mechanisms within a unified design approach that ensures continuity between early and later stages of language development. The novelty of the research lies in the formulation of paired repetition as a cognitive-diagnostic model aligning theoretical and practical aspects of evaluating grammatical competence in bilingual children. The article will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in psycholinguistics, bilingual education, and cognitive science.

bilingualism, cognitive development, language acquisition, sentence repetition, generalization, discourse context, design-oriented approach

Andreou, M., Tsimpli, I. M., Masoura, E., & Agathopoulou, E. (2021). Cognitive mechanisms of monolingual and bilingual children in monoliterate educational settings: Evidence from sentence repetition. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 613992. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613992

Grimm, A. (2022). The use of the LITMUS quasi-universal nonword repetition task to identify DLD in monolingual and early second language learners aged 8 to 10. Languages, 7(3), Article 218. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030218

Kałowski, P., Obarska, M., Romaneczko, J., Walczak, D., & Banasik-Jemielniak, N. (2025). Differences in sentence repetition tasks in studies on bilingual children’s language development: A systematic review. International Journal of Bilingualism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069251358991

Lally, S., Banasik-Jemielniak, N., Haman, E., & Antonijevic, S. (2025). Language assessment of Polish-English bilingual children by speech and language therapists who do not speak Polish: A feasibility study of a novel scoring schema for sentence-repetition-tasks. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(2), e70005. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70005

Lester, N. A., Moran, S., Küntay, A. C., Allen, S. E. M., Pfeiler, B., & Stoll, S. (2022). Detecting structured repetition in child-surrounding speech: Evidence from maximally diverse languages. Cognition, 221, Article 104986. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104986

Monaghan, P., Donnelly, S., Alcock, K., Bidgood, A., Cain, K., Durrant, S., Frost, R. L. A., Jago, L. S., Peter, M. S., Pine, J. M., Turnbull, H., & Rowland, C. F. (2023). Learning to generalise but not segment an artificial language at 17 months predicts children’s language skills 3 years later. Cognitive Psychology, 147, Article 101607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2023.101607

Nencheva, M. L., Schwab, J. F., Lew-Williams, C., & Fausey, C. M. (2024). Word repetition and isolation are intertwined in children's early language experiences. Open Mind, 8, 1330–1347. https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00172

Neveu, A., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2024). The role of bilingualism in paired-associate and cross-situational word learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 27(1), 41–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728923000524

Tal, S., Grossman, E., & Arnon, I. (2024). Infant-directed speech becomes less redundant as infants grow: Implications for language learning. Cognition, 249, Article 105817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105817

Torregrossa, J., Listanti, A., Bongartz, C., & Marinis, T. (2024). Adding discourse to sentence repetition tasks: Under which conditions does bilingual children's performance improve? Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), Article 100107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100107