Comparing Monolingual And Bilingualitative Research

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.

A recent study was held at the University of Granada and the University of York in Toronto, Canada. This study showed that the working memory, the system that retains, processes, and revises information over shorter periods of time, is better in bilingual children than monolingual students. From mental calculations to the comprehension of a reading, working memory plays a huge part in many activities we perform. The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology published this study. The goal of this study was to see how the development of the working memory is influenced by multilingualism. In addition, it explored the link between superior cognition and working memory for bilingual people.

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

“Cognitive functions can be defined as cerebral activities that lead to knowledge, encompass reasoning, memory, attention, and language that leads directly to the attainment of information and, thus, knowledge” (What are cognitive functions). Many students at Doulos are unaware of the benefits of knowing two languages. Ironically students also don’t know that their own brain and its skills are improving because of their second language. Doulos teaches classes throughout the whole day in both English and Spanish. Students are regularly changing between languages and their brain is always active with both languages. “This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). People who are bilingual are capable of switching between tasks more efficiently. “For example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape, they do so more rapidly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when changing strategies on the fly” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). Students’ cognitive and sensory process skills are more developed due to being bilingual (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). These improvements allow students to better process and understand information in different environments, thus leading to better

al., 2010). While individuals with ADHD may be hindered in working memory, bilinguals are noted to have better executive skills and thus better working memory. According to the article, "Effects of classroom bilingualism on task-shifting, verbal memory, and word learning in children", bilingual individuals outperform monolingual individuals on tasks involving verbal working memory (Kaushanskaya et al., 2014). Moreover, it is shown that bilingual performance relative to monolinguals increases with more difficult tasks. These results were interpreted that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals in these tasks because bilinguals may have a greater executive functioning , specifically controlling attention, than monolinguals. As proposed in "Bilingual brain training: A neurobiological framework of how bilingual experience improves executive function", bilingual practice enhance the key functions of the basal ganglia- "the capacity of selecting the appropriate rules in response to very specific conditions, and the capacity of overriding habitual responses encoded within cortico-cortical connections" (Stocco,

Increasing evidence is that being bilingual is cognitively beneficial.” As the world changes, so does the languages the people use shown by the

The ability to inhibit thoughts has effect on EF (executive functioning), and thus inhibit ability is increased in two-language children. It requires halting the thought process of one specific language. Through this, two-language children also seem to have an increased ability in focusing their attention, which could be due to the ability to inhibit outside, intrusive influence (such as their other language shining through their speech). They also can pick and choose one correct solution in a conflicting situation, again because of this inhibition practice. It is unknown what level of bilingualism is

For language development, there is a popular debate on whether there is an advantage to being a bilingual individual. There is a large amount of evidence that supports both sides of the argument. In terms of bilingual advantage, various studies focus on how bilingual or multilingual individuals outperform individuals on executive control tasks that are either linguistic of non-linguistic in nature. The advantages stem from greater foundations of executive function, such as cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, in bilinguals than in non-bilinguals. Young and older bilingual individuals show a cognitive advantage because they outperform non-bilingual individuals during executive function tasks for enhanced attentional control, conflict

This study is important as it extremely relevant in the globalized society that we live in today, in addition to the fact that it offers further evidence on the tangible benefits of raising a child to be bilingual that come later in his or her life. Even if the study does not show a clear and convincing correlation between raising a child to be bilingual and higher academic performance in college, I believe that my study will encourage people to think more about the potential benefits of raising a child to be

Valian believes that while bilingualism is only one of the factors that may boost cognitive functioning and that data from children and young adults are currently inconclusive, a bilingual advantage seems to be present among older people. Indeed, as Valian (2014a) suggests, studying younger individuals is difficult per se because they are exposed to so many other activities that may enhance executive function. There are currently very few studies on bilingualism in the aging

In a study of bilingual adults, non-verbal executive functions were found to be a key mechanism system used to solve two or more linguistic conflicts caused by the process of manifesting language co-activation of bilingualism (Ellen Bialystok, 2015). Behavioral visual tracking, event-related potential and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies support the argument of co-language activation. The two implications are related to the viewpoint that this language conflict management is the basic mechanism for the bilingual effect on cognition. The first suggestion is that this effect is inherently available due to training in increasing experience frequency. Therefore, there is evidence that bilingual experience increases cognitive benefits.

This research is extremely important and the findings are very crucial to improving the bilingual

1 Emmorey, Karen, GiGi Luk, Jennie Pyers, and Ellen Bialystok (2008): The Source of Enhanced Cognitive Control in Bilinguals. Psychological Science.

Bilingualism can be defined as speaking and understanding two languages (MacLeod, Fabiano-Smith, Boegner-Pagé & Fontolliet, 2012). The main empirical finding for the effect of bilingualism on cognition is in the evidence for enhanced executive control in bilingual speakers (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). Executive functions encompass cognitive processes involved in control and management, such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, task

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.