Extending the Complementary Learning Systems theory (Davis & Gaskell, 2009) to how bilinguals learn novel second language (L2) words, Polish-English bilinguals listened to a story containing novel L2 English words. Testing their ability to identify pauses and recognize novel words, immediately after learning and 24 hours later, we found that learning and consolidation of L2 words proceeds similarly as in L1, but the magnitude of L2 consolidation depends on learners’ ability to recognize novel words.