A study investigated the effects of introducing a time delay between a "what question" and a verbal model on the spontaneous production of novel object words. Monolingual Spanish-speaking, Mexican children were taught the English names for toys. In the control condition, a "what question" was followed promptly by modeling the correct English label. In the experimental condition, a time delay was introduced between the "what question" and the verbal model. During training sessions, control children produced more imitative English words and experimental children produced more spontaneous English words. On post-tests, experimental children's production of English labels was superior to that of control children. No differences were found in comprehension levels. The role of time delay in spontaneous language use is discussed. (Author/MSE)