Abstract
Some studies have reported a cognitive advantage for bilingual children over monolinguals and other studies have not. One possible reason for these conflicting results is that the degree of cognitive flexibility is related to individual differences in language dominance and use. More balanced bilinguals who separate their languages by context might have to learn to reduce inter-language interference and therefore show greater cognitive flexibility. The goal of the present study was to test if language dominance is related to French–English bilingual children’s cognitive flexibility, using three different measures of language dominance: (1) parental reports of dominance, (2) relative scores on vocabulary tests, and (3) knowledge of translation equivalents. We also included two measures of language use: (1) living in a bilingual community (Montreal) or a monolingual community (Edmonton) and (2) language separation. Sixty-two French–English bilingual between 46 and 85 months of age participated. Children’s cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Advanced Dimensional Change Card Sort task. Children’s language knowledge and use was assessed in both French and English using a battery of tests. The results showed that none of the measures of language dominance or language use predicted cognitive flexibility. These results are inconsistent with the claim that individual differences in language dominance and use predict bilinguals’ executive function s.
Highlights
Even when processing only one language, bilinguals have both languages activated in their minds (Grosjean, 1989; Green, 1998; Costa, 2005; Rodriguez-Fornells et al, 2005)
Descriptive statistics for the predictor variables and the executive functions (EFs) measures are summarized in Table 2, grouped by the parental report on the children’s dominance
We predicted that the children who were relatively balanced in their bilingual abilities would perform better on the EF task than the unbalanced bilinguals (Ricciardelli, 1992; Bialystok and Majumder, 1998)
Summary
Even when processing only one language, bilinguals have both languages activated in their minds (Grosjean, 1989; Green, 1998; Costa, 2005; Rodriguez-Fornells et al, 2005). Some researchers have argued that bilinguals’ experience with selecting and inhibiting languages could generalize to other tasks involving attentional processing and cognitive flexibility (Bialystok, 2001; Bialystok et al, 2005). If the experience of selecting and inhibiting languages generalizes to other tasks involving EF, bilinguals might outperform monolinguals on non-linguistic measures of EF. This bilingual advantage might be salient during times of developmental change, like childhood and old age (Bialystok et al, 2006; Craik and Bialystok, 2006). This sensitive period of development provides an opportunity for some positive contextual experiences, such as socioeconomic status and parenting practices, to enhance the development of EFs (Matte-Gagne and Bernier, 2011; Sarsour et al, 2011; FayStammbach et al, 2014; Lengua et al, 2015)
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