What Is Cognitive Advantage In Bilingualism?

Bilingualism itself can be held responsible for increased levels of executive control and higher brain plasticity. In order to maintain a balance between two languages, the bilingual brain depends on executive functions, a monitoring system of general cognitive abilities that includes processes such as attention and inhibition. Laurent et. al 2010 aimed to determine bilingual experience enhances the development of phonological awareness. Children were exposed to early learning of a second language between the school grades 3-5 in primary school, ages ranging from 8 to 10 years old. The goal of this study was to promote the concept of “bilingual advantage” (Laurent, 2010) as researchers measured exactly how long children required second language exposure in order to influence phonological awareness. These researchers expected that after 4 years

Despite these weaknesses in research methodology, research and understanding of how bilingual influences cognitive and neurological functions has improved. When considering the multidimensional effects of bilingualism on social, cognitive, educational, and linguistic aspects, the impact of bilingualism should be studied in the context of dynamic interaction systems. According to a 2006 European Commission survey, 56% of respondents said they could speak a language other than

Many studies look into the idea of executive control. Executive control is the ability to control tasks involving inhibition, attention, and conflict or even broader, anything that requires effortful selection (Clare et al., 2014; & Bialystok, 2011). This ability develops late in cognitive development and declines with age (Bialystok et al., 2012). Researchers hypothesize that bilingual individuals have a continually activated executive control system as there are two competing languages that must be selected from based on the social context. Due to the joint activation of two languages, there is an attention struggle that is not present in monolingual individuals or bimodal

There are many myths about bilingualism having negative effects. One of those myths are that babies are hopelessly confused by exposure to two languages. However, studies have proven that learning more than one language as an infant is actually very beneficial and not difficult to do. According to Judith F. Kroll, babies develop the ability to discriminate the languages that they listen to and are more open to learning a new language. A study by Ferran Pons and other colleagues, revealed how bilingual children show an earlier attentional shift to the mouth. This is due to the fact that bilingual infants rely more on the perceptual salient of audiovisual speech cues in order to to construct two different language systems. Furthermore, another

Bilingualism and multilingualism are well practiced through the World. Despite it being well accepted on other parts of the globe, many areas in the United States tends to turn a cold shoulder to it.. Most education policies concerning bilingual or not based on scientific evidence and research (which has discovered the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism) but rather pre conceived notions and stigmas when it comes to the practice. After some brief research, I believe we should embrace the "new wave" practices and policies, which are more well informed rather than the past. Researches also need to explore new ways in which the brain retains, recognizes and organizes language learning. Now is the tome to put evidence based practices and

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

Marian and Shook (2012) described how research has shown that a fluent bilingual or multilingual person has greater executive brain function. This has been shown using fMRI technology. The authors provide evidence that the increased executive function is related to the necessity of the bilingual individual to control which language the brain focuses on. The attention and inhibition areas of the brain are activated to perform this process. With greater executive function, bilinguals perform better on conflict management tasks, such as those presented in Stroop Task.

Since the early 20th century numerous studies, in psychology as well as linguistics, have been conducted on the effects of bilingualism on cognitive abilities (Saer, 1923; Smith, 1923; Gowan & Torrance, 1965). Until the 1960s there was some consensus among experts about the detrimental effect of bilingualism on cognitive development. However, after the publication of Peal and Lambert’s article on the relation of bilingualism to intelligence, most of these theories were discredited due to methodological flaws (Peal & Lambert, 1962). A majority of the studies conducted before this period did not take into consideration the differences in age, gender, culture, second language proficiency and socio-economic status between the monolingual and bilingual participants. Research conducted thereafter has found largely positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive functions (Landry, 1974; Holtzman, 1980). Recent research in the field has focused on understanding the relationship between bilingualism and specific aspects of cognition, such as inhibitory control, creativity and metalinguistic awareness, as opposed to the earlier studies which tried to associate bilingualism with intelligence. Even though, most studies have found a positive correlation between bilingual proficiency and cognitive benefits, there is still much debate in this area of research (Leikin, 2012). In 1992, Ricciardelli

This site contains information on 8,000 children across different ages and different levels of cognitive abilities. Three groups of kids with varying parental backgrounds were tested on their cognitive abilities. The three groups were children with two UK parents, two foreign born parents, and one foreign/one UK parent. According to Clifton-Sprigg, it has been established that early education in language influences the child’s ability to learn new skills. This poses the question whether being bilingual will be an advantage or disadvantage to the child. In this case linguists have shared opposing views on whether the child benefits from being bilingualism. Some linguists argue that bilingualism can give a distinct advantage because it improves the understanding of some concepts and improves creative ability. Other linguists offer a different perspective saying that children who are monolingual spend less time learning the language which allows them to pick up other skills easier. An observation done was that a child's linguistic ability is dependent on the parents and how suited they are to teach the child language. Problems become apparent

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

Bilingualism is known to have a negative and a positive outcome on individuals who are multilingual or bilingual. Around the 21st century at least half of the world’s population are now bilingual .The article The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual discussed the different aspect of bilingualism and how it affects the way our brain process information. Researchers have studied the brain that showed that being multilingual and bilingual “have a better attention and task-switching capacities than monolingual brain” function.

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.

In modern society, owning a place in the bilingual community is a special trait that allows for people to have a true connection with one another. “Bilingual” is a term describing people who can speak more than one language, and with more than 7000 languages inhibiting the world, the demand for bilingual speakers is steadily growing (Okal, 2014). The number of people who speak more than one language is increasing world-wide as it “is estimated that over a billion people in the world speak more than one language fluently” (Okal, 2014, p. 226). With that being said, some studies show that approximately one in five Americans speak a language other than English at home, and that is just in the United States alone. Moreover, the number of people who are able to speak more than one language is more than likely going to exhibit an increase in the near future as well (Callahan & Gandara, 2014). Along with an increase in speakers, an increase in demand for these speakers will increase too. Bilingualism opens the gateway to opportunities and benefits for people all around the world. However, many people do not see the importance of increasing the spread of bilingual speakers throughout the nation’s communities. Without these bilingual speakers, various people and their neighborhoods would not be able to communicate with one another because of the large language barrier sitting between them. That is why being bilingual contains many benefits, including its brain improvements, career benefits, and social skill boosts that will help out the speaker and his or her listeners in the long run.

Nicoladis also evaluates the idea that bilingualism positively affects children’s ability to understand that events and words can be analyzed in various ways. Bilingual children may find it easier to understand that the same word can have different meanings, which can give them an advantage in learning new words or attempting to define an unknown word. Bilingualism can also improve children’s development of executive functioning skills, giving them advanced abilities in processing information, task management, and in particular, selective attention. In social cognition, bilingual children have been noted to have a higher developed theory-of-mind than monolingual children, although there is still some debate over whether that can be attributed strictly to their bilingualism or to other factors.