The Effect of "Bilingualism" on Iranian Pre-university Students‘ English Grammar Proficiency

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of the effect of bilingualism on the grammar proficiency of three groups of Iranian pre-university female students: two composed of Azeri-Turkish bilinguals and Armenian bilinguals the other, of Persian monolinguals. The study attempted to ascertain whether bilinguals would do better than monolinguals on a Standard English grammar test and whether those bilinguals who have had school education and academic courses in their mother tongue i.e., for examples Armenians in this study would out perform the other bilingual group who do not have a bilingual program. To get the answers for these two questions, it was necessary to form three homogenous groups, so subjects were given the Nelson’s pre-intermediate test to answer as pre test. After forming 3 homogenous groups, all in pre-intermediate level they were trained for two months and finally they were given a post-test (Nelson’s intermediate grammar test). The results were then analyzed, and it was concluded that bilinguals definitely outperformed monolinguals on the English Grammar and Armenian’s group did better than Azeri-Turkish bilinguals. Given these results, bilingual education programs beginning in early elementary school were recommended for Iran.