Does Language Make a Difference? A Study of Language Dominance and Inhibitory Control.

Ashley Marie Salwei,Beatriz De Diego-Lázaro

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648100

Abstract

Although extensive research has been done to compare monolingual and bilingual children’s executive function, there are fewer studies that look at the relation between bilingual children’s languages and executive function. The purpose of this study was two-fold; first, to compare inhibitory control (executive function) in monolingual and bilingual children and second, to determine what vocabulary measure (dominant vs. non-dominant language) was related to inhibitory control in bilingual children. Twenty monolingual (English) and 20 bilingual (English-Spanish) children between the ages of 8 and 12 completed a vocabulary test (in English and Spanish) and an inhibitory control task (the flanker task). Analysis of Covariances (ANCOVAs) revealed no significant differences between monolingual and bilingual children in reaction time (RT) or accuracy in the flanker task after controlling for maternal education. Partial correlations controlling for age showed that English expressive vocabulary (dominant language), but not Spanish, was positively correlated with inhibitory control (larger vocabulary and better inhibitory control), suggesting that bilingual children may use their dominant language to self-regulate over their non-dominant language, increasing the inhibitory control associated to the dominant language.

Highlights

Language and executive functions are two distinct brain tasks, yet they are related and difficult to separate, creating a debate about what function influences the other; does cognition precede language, does language drive cognition, or are they bidirectionally influenced? is there a debate about how these tasks are related, but we have limited information about how these tasks change if the individual is monolingual vs. bilingual
Extensive past research has focused on identifying differences in executive function between monolingual and bilingual children with inconclusive results; some suggest there is a bilingual advantage (e.g., Carlson and Meltzoff, 2008; Martin-Rhee and Bialystok, 2008; Adesope et al, 2010; Foy and Mann, 2014), while others propose there is no significant advantage for bilinguals (e.g., Antón et al, 2014; Duñabeitia et al, 2014; Ross and Melinger, 2017; Arizmendi et al, 2018)
These results are in line with previous studies that did not find a bilingual advantage in executive function, including inhibitory control (e.g., Namazi and Thordardottir, 2010; Gathercole et al, 2014; Arizmendi et al, 2018; Desjardins and Fernandez, 2018), but in contrast to many others that did find a bilingual advantage (e.g., Carlson and Meltzoff, 2008; Martin-Rhee and Bialystok, 2008; Adesope et al, 2010; Foy and Mann, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Language and executive functions are two distinct brain tasks, yet they are related and difficult to separate, creating a debate about what function influences the other; does cognition precede language, does language drive cognition, or are they bidirectionally influenced? is there a debate about how these tasks are related, but we have limited information about how these tasks change if the individual is monolingual vs. bilingual. Is there a debate about how these tasks are related, but we have limited information about how these tasks change if the individual is monolingual vs bilingual. There are fewer studies that look at the relation between bilingual children’s languages and executive function (e.g., Poulin-Dubois et al, 2011; Crivello et al, 2016; Kuzyk et al, 2020). The purpose of this study was two-fold; first, to compare inhibitory control (executive function) in monolingual.

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Discussion

Conclusion