Link between Verbal Fluency and Phonological Short-Term Memory in Simultaneous Bilinguals and Monolinguals

Moreover, studies on bilingual language processing have shown that when bilingual speakers, listen to, read, or produce sentences, linguistic competency in both languages is activated, even when the speaker uses one language (Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., & Hoshino, N. (2014). This cross-language activation can be detected in both beginners and highly skilled bilinguals and can be found at various levels of language processing system, such as lexicon, phonology, and grammar. In particular, cognitive research on bilingualism suggests that a bilingual speaker’s second language, which is not used in word recognition and language production, is being suppressed and the language that tends to be self-controlled is the native language of the speaker, not the second foreign language, implying that the native language is indeed compromised to accommodate the second language. The control system used to cognitively prohibit and switch languages is a control system commonly used for

“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

The first myth of the monolingual brain means that infant’s brains are monolingual and treat two different languages as the same language. This, however, is untrue; infants can learn two languages at the same time and will not get confused between the two. Evidence for the myth of the monolingual brain comes from developmental milestones, differentiated use of two languages, and grammatical constraints on bilingual code mixing. In regards to developmental milestones, bilingualism versus monolingualism has no known consequences for phonological

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 article discusses the differences between working memory and short-term memory in children who have either a phonological delay or typically developing speech. It aims at discovering whether there is any other language or cognitive aspects that are involved in phonological errors in children with phonological delay and the differences between phonological working memory and phonological short-term memory. This was measured using various memory tasks and measuring each child’s receptive vocabulary size (Waring, Eadie, Liow, & Dodd, 2016).

Bilingualism is a person’s ability to speak two or more languages fluently. Initially it was believed that bilingualism had negative effects on an individual’s intelligence and speech and it was thought that the knowledge of multiple languages would complicate one’s thought processing rather than improve its functioning. This theory

Stocco, A., & Prat, C. S. (2014). Bilingualism trains specific brain circuits involved in flexible rule selection and application. Brain and language, 137,

This investigation discusses the question of “Is the brain organized differently in bilingual individuals?”. This question was brought upon living in a bilingual community at school, with both Arabic and English speakers. This essay will demonstrate the brain imaging techniques used to differentiate the monolingual brain from a bilingual brain, research studies, and the positive and negative outcomes toward a bilingual brain. Language constructs our relationship with the world arounds us in the ways we express ourselves, therefore what does it mean to be bilingual and monolingual? Bilingualism refers to an individual’s ability to speak two or more languages fluently even if one language is learned later on in life. However, monolinguals are

According to them, bilingual children suffer on average from delays in terms of vocabulary and are disadvantaged in the language understanding and acquisitions (“The Latest”). It seems there is nothing special about bilinguals (“The Latest”). They have better cognitive abilities because language is something that we use all the time, and doing it with more than one is harder. It engages the brain in multitasking (“The Latest”).

First of all, bilingual education has shown to be able to increase the attention span of students. For years it had been believed that, when learning two languages, students found themselves to become increasingly distracted and confused, unaware of which language to use in what moment. Today, however, scientists can see that that is far from the case. In fact, if a student

The connection between bilingualism and cognitive functioning has been greatly studied in the field of psychology. It is believed that people who speak more than one language have enhanced cognitive abilities, compared to monolinguals, which put them at an exceptional level of being communicatively and perceptually successful in life. However, in order to study such abilities that bilingual individuals might have in greater depth it is important to look at development specifically and where it all begins in youth. With this type of research, we will be able to make conclusions about how such predispositions during childhood could have beneficial effects on these individuals later on in life. Therefore, we assume that children who grow up and are raised speaking more than one language possess better executive functioning, specifically in the areas of working memory and attention, compared to monolingual children.

Learning a second language at a young age has long-term benefits that can be felt even in old age. As human’s age their brains atrophy, but bilingual people can delay the consequences of this damage. These individuals are constantly experiencing the world using two languages so, while a monolingual person remembers how to ride a bike in one language, a bilingual person stores that memory twice, once in their first language a once in their second. This allows bilingual

Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I.M Craik, and Gigi Luk (2012) studied the impact of bilinguism in one’s life by explaining the effects of bilingualism on cognition and its mechanisms. Ellen et al. (2012) found that overall bilinguals exerted better executive control than monolinguals. One possibile mechanism of this difference was mainly due that bilinguals exerted usage of a joint activation. Meaning that, the bilinigual’s mind showed activation for both languageses and that there were an interaction between them, even when

Imagine one day, you are taking the train to school or work and you observe a female toddler speaking to her parent in a native tongue, and then to her sibling in English. You become perplexed by her ability to rapidly switch between languages, and begin to think of how this is possible. Language makes up an extraordinary part of human abilities and contributes greatly to the usage of different parts of our brain. Being a resident of New York City, most of us know at least five individuals who are either bilingual or multilingual. This ability to switch between languages and reconfigure the brain has always been fascinating, being that I am monolingual, and I have always been intrigued by this development. We know most of our friends and families are bilingual because someone in their immediate family speaks the native language fluently. According to Buchweitz et al, bilingualism is a “multi-dimensional human phenomenon” that can be studied by how often someone uses the language and their capacity to develop this skill (Buchweitz & Prat, 2013). The main issues that this paper will be focusing on are as follows: the effects of bilingualism on the functioning and structure of the brain in correlation to the different aspects of processing language in a neural network, and how age of acquisition can affect the proficiency of language. The structure of the brain helps us understand the “architecture of language networks”, while the function shows us how these networks are

It would have appeared irrationally bold to propose that bilinguals would outperform monolinguals since previous research had always recorded bilingual deficits on verbal tests and intelligence measures. Studies comparing IQ scores on the Stanford-Binet test of intelligence repeatedly showed IQ deficits in bilinguals or children who were exposed to non-English languages in the home.The verbal basis of this test, which was always administered in English, never raised questions. Therefore, a series of studies done in the 1970s reported enhanced metalinguistic awareness in bilingual children and speculated that ‘learning two languages at once might heighten one's awareness of specific linguistic devices (Clark, 1978). From that beginning, research in bilingualism has become more balanced , broad,