The Connection Between Bilingualism And Cognitive Functioning

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.

Over the past several decades, cognitive psychology researchers have suggested that different types of cognitive and behavioral experiences can change the structure and function of a learner's brain over time. In an article in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Ellen Bialystok (University of York) presented bilingualism as an experience that could have a significant impact on long-term neurology and cognitive development and function.However, it was somewhat difficult to prove the specific correlation that the effects of bilingualism actually have on brain function. The study of the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development analyzes only several measurable structural and cognitive effects of bilingualism, based on a component perspective. This approach, however, presented an overly brief understanding of bilingual mental and brain structures and the lack of an accurate analysis of widely reconstructed structures that arise from many contextual factors that lead to complex changes in function.

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.

Bilingualism is skill that is gained through life circumstances that does not require some innate skill (Bialystok, 2011). Some of these circumstances could include one’s family, immigration history, or birthplace. The ability to speak and understand more than one language is common among over half the world’s population (Bialystok et al., 2012). In the 1960s, many researchers warned against teaching children more than one language as it many cause confusion and it appeared to have negative effects on a child’s cognitive development (Bialystok, 1988). As research regarding bilingualism has progressed, the effects of bilingualism have been shown to be advantageous compared to monolingual counterparts. Recent studies have even found that bilingualism provides benefits all stages of life (Bialystok, 2011).

Having the ability to speak more than one language influences one’ life deeply. Speaking two or more languages can affect someone from being infants to old age. Bhattacharjee continues with, “The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there

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,

In an article called “Being Bilingual Makes You Smarter” it states that “the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function,a command system that directs the attention processes

Many people do not believe in bilingual education because they think that the student would confuse the two languages and in the end speak neither one correctly. A closer look at when the two language mixes reveals that most of them master one of the languages to the same degree as a monolingual speaker (Korth 3). Through their bilingualism, they can use linguistic means creatively in accordance with the demands of the situation. This flexibility is a cognitive ability, which monolingual speakers can achieve only through effortful learning and training. Switching from one language to the other can be interpreted as an indication of the speaker’s fluency (Korth 3). In some cases, the languages are only spoken in specific places. If a child speaks

Language is the main form of communication for humans, who begin learning language from a young age. With such a diverse world, many people speak more than one language. However, is there a difference between the attention strategies and processing between monolingual and bilingual born speakers? How early do these differences appear? Research suggests bilingual infants express greater attention strategies and processing compared to monolingual infants. This paper will examine studies indicating that there are significant differences between the cognitive development of monolingual and bilingual infants.

It's scientifically comproved that kids whose parents expose them to speak two different languages during childhood, tend to show better response to brain activities diverging from monolingual kids. One article written by one of the most recognized colleges in the United states said that it happens due to the fact that kids' right brain side is more receptive to new information in a period that goes from the age of 6 months to 5 years. Kids that are stimulated to speak two different languages since a very early age have more precise mental skills due to the fact that their brains is constantly working to deal with all the information received all the time. One interesting fact about bilingual kids is called " code switch" which is a natural

The intention of this paper is to provide several pertinent issues regarding bilingualism, and also attempt to clarify some aspects of bilingualism, relating to cognitive aspects. Individuals identified by the term bilingualism in different way, and on the other hand, with better skills in one language. Actually it is more common for bilingual individuals, even individuals who have been bilingual since birth; to be somewhat dominant within each language. Simultaneous bilingualism describes a person who is learning in two languages as the first languages (Sebastián, el al., 2005). An individual who is a simultaneous bilingual goes from communicating no languages at all straight to speaking two languages (Sebastián, el al., 2005). Sequential bilingualism identifies to a person who is learning one language after already having well-known a first language (Schwartz, Kozminsky, & Leikin, 2009). The large majority of investigational work with language development, mainly in the area of early lexical acquisition has aimed on monolingual infants (Bialystok, 2001). However, because of immigration, official language polices, cultural personal preferences and norms. Research revealed empirical data screening positive influence of bilingualism on children’s cognitive ability (Fennell, Byers-Heinlein, & Werker, 2007). Researcher discovered

On the other hand bilingual individuals should have enhanced processes such as increased cognitive flexibility, inhibition along with increased competence in updating information in the working memory (Miyake et al., 2000; Bialystok, 2009). Multiple researches and studies have indicated bilingual children gain the ability to attend to new features and switch criteria for sorting decisions while ignoring misleading distraction from meaning, earlier than their monolinguals (Ben-Zeev, 1977, Bialystok, 1999; Bialystok, 2010; Bialystok & Martin, 2004). Additionally, bilingual children have been shown to perform significantly better than monolingual children on metalinguistic tasks that require controlled attention and inhibition (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008; Bialystok, 2009; Costa, Hernández, Costa-Faidella, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2009; Kovács & Mehler, 2009 and Bonifacci, Giombini, Bellocchi, and Contento, 2011). That said, Bialystok, Craik, and Ruocco (2006) and Bialystok (2006) found that these differences were not as statistically noteworthy in undergraduate university students. This seems to indicate that the functions under discussion may only be significantly different during childhood hence the bilingual child may learn these functions earlier than the monolingual child.

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