Positive Effects Of Bilingualism Research Articles

Bilingualism in the Clinical Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

AbstractBackgroundNeuropsychological assessments determine the presence of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). These tests are susceptible to the influence of cultural and linguistic variables. Bilingualism is a potential contributor to cognitive reserve in elderly individuals. Positive effects of bilingualism have been observed in executive function tasks, while negative effects have been reported on verbal fluency tests. Maintaining two active languages may modify cognitive and brain reserve among bilinguals, but evidence is inconsistent and contradictory. We investigated the relationship between bilingualism and neuropsychological test performance in aging participants from the 1Florida ADRC using a longitudinal design.MethodsWe studied 238 Latino older adults (age 71.79 ± 8.01 years old, 65% female). 158 Latino participants were Spanish‐English bilinguals; 80 were Spanish monolinguals. Bilingualism was assessed by a proficiency questionnaire. Six cognitive composites were developed (Figure 1). We investigated cognitive test change scores between language group, visit (2 visits: M = 14.61 months; SD = 3.52), and diagnosis (normal, MCI, dementia) using 2×2×3 repeated measures ANCOVAs (age and level of education). Cognitive scores were correlated with frontal and temporal brain volumes in bilinguals and monolinguals separately.ResultsMain effects of the diagnostic group and visit were significant for all composites (ps < .001), with the dementia group showing the lowest scores. No significant main effect of Bilingualism was observed for any of the composites. An interaction between visit and bilingualism was seen for the Trail Making Test B‐ A. Three‐way interactions were found between diagnostic groups, visit, and bilingualism for the Verbal composite and the Logical Memory delay subtest (part of the Memory composite). A more significant decline in the monolingual groups was observed, more so in the dementia group. Significant correlations were found between most composites in both language groups, being more related to the temporal than frontal lobe areas, using MRI volumetric measures.ConclusionBilingualism seems to interact with cognitive decline in aging. It is essential to consider the individual’s level of bilingualism to obtain an accurate assessment of cognitive impairment. The interaction of bilingualism with other sociodemographic and cognitive variables will be discussed.

Exploring bilingual effects on iconic memory using 2D and 3D visuospatial recognition tasks

Numerous studies indicate positive effects of bilingualism on cognition, mostly found in the domains such as attention, inhibitory control, auditory processing, and memory (Bialystok, 2018; Krizman et al., 2012; Spinu, 2022). While most studies focusing on memory have explored differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in working memory and, more recently, in auditory sensory memory, the question of whether bilingualism also affects iconic memory remains understudied. In this study, we explore whether bilingual experience results in enhanced iconic memory in the form of gestural, visuospatial recognition. We present bilingual and monolingual participants from NYC (n = 40) with thirty sets of foreign characters, one at a time, then ask them to recall which characters they have seen before from a list of characters that includes novel ones bearing high resemblance with previously shown characters. Second, we display to the same participants thirty sets of ASL signs (15 2D images and 15 3D short videos), with high resemblance as well, utilizing the same method to evaluate their gestural and visuospatial abilities in iconic memory. While the experiment is currently underway, the findings will shed more light on whether the benefits associated with additional language experience extend to non-linguistic domains, likely resulting from enhanced cognitive function mechanisms.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN EARLY BILINGUAL SCHOOL-CHILDREN STUDYING A THIRD LANGUAGE

The study is focused on the possibility to extrapolate the effects of bilingualism on trilingualism at the primary school age, and of increasing / decreasing cognitive regulation of bilingual children in the process and result of learning other languages. The study involved  second-grade students aged  to . years (M = ., SD = .). Among them  are primary schoolchildren with unbalanced bilingualism (inherited Udmurt language) socializing in the Udmurt-Russian environment; and  are monolinguals with native Russian. To measure the components of cognitive regulation, NEPSY-II test battery (Sentence Repetition, Memory for Designs, Inhibition) and computerized tests (Stroop Test, Shulte Tables, Memory for geometric shapes, Go-No- Go) were used. The mathematical and statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, a non-parametric test (Mann-Whitney U-test) and Structural Equation Modeling implemented with IBM SPSS Statistics V.. The results of the pilot study confi rm the bilingual advantage in the process of learning a third language by primary bilingual schoolchildren. In particular, the positive effects of bilingualism on regulatory functions have been revealed, and, at the same time, in the process of learning a third language bilingual primary schoolchildren experience the increasing burden on the regulation of changes in actions and behavior during the transition from one rule to another. Thus, a possible syncretic (mixed) effect of bilingualism in the process of a third language acquisition by primary schoolchildren with the need to control it in an educational situation was revealed. We admit that bilingualism in the educational situation of a third language acquisition as a predictor of cognitive changes provides advantages in the self-organization of subsystems of regulatory processes of the cognitive level and, along with this, creates diffi culties due to the high regulatory load. The research was fi nancially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) research project №--.

Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory in Arabic-English Female Bilinguals: Is There an Advantage?

This study sheds light on the effect of bilingualism on working memory performance. It aims to investigate whether bilingual speakers have an advantage over monolingual speakers in performing visual-spatial working memory tasks. The present study attempts to be a contribution to the discussion of how working memory performance is affected by bilingualism. It tries to find out whether Arabic-English bilingual speakers have advantages over Arabic monolingual speakers in performing visual-spatial working memory tasks. Two experiments were conducted to test the working memory performance of bilinguals and monolinguals by using verbal and non-verbal tasks. The two measures were completed online; the non-verbal measure involved a picture memorization task, whereas the verbal measure involved word retrieval. Eighty female college students voluntarily participated in the study. Half were Arabic-English bilinguals, and the other half were Arabic monolinguals. Both groups were divided into two subgroups; half performed a non-verbal working memory task, and the other half participated in a verbal working memory task. The results showed no advantages for bilinguals in the picture memorization task. However, a bilingual advantage was found in the verbal working memory task in which bilingual speakers performed better in word retrieval compared to monolingual speakers. The findings indicate a positive effect of bilingualism on working memory performance, particularly in the visual-spatial component.

The swerve: How childhood bilingualism changed from liability to benefit.

Early research that relied on standardized assessments of intelligence reported negative effects of bilingualism for children, but a study by Peal and Lambert (1962) reported better performance by bilingual than monolingual children on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. This outcome led to the view that bilingualism was a positive experience. However, subsequent research abandoned intelligence tests as the assessment tool and evaluated performance on cognitive tasks, making the research after Peal and Lambert qualitatively different from that before their landmark study, creating a disconnect between the new and earlier research. These newer cognitive studies showed both positive effects of bilingualism and no differences between language groups. But why were Peal and Lambert's results so different from previous studies that were also based on intelligence tests? The present study analyzed data from verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests that were collected from 6,077 participants across 79 studies in which intelligence tests were administered as background measures to various cognitive tasks. By including adults, the study extends the results across the life span. On standardized verbal tests, monolinguals outperformed bilinguals, but on nonverbal measures of intelligence, there were no differences between language groups. These results, which are different from those reported by Peal and Lambert, are used to reinterpret their findings in terms of the sociolinguistic, political, and cultural context in which the Peal and Lambert study was conducted and the relevance of those factors for all developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the Relationship Between Multilingual Learning Experience, Metalinguistic Knowledge, and Metalinguistic Awareness

The last two decades have witnessed a considerable increase in interest in Third or Additional Language Acquisition (TLA). The positive effects of bilingualism in TLA have related the advantages evident in bilingual learners to the influence of bilingualism on cognitive development and, specifically, Metalinguistic Awareness (MLA). The paper aims, first, at providing a comprehensive portrait of what MLA is, considering the complexity of this factor, its linguistic and cognitive nature along the implicit - explicit continuum. Second, it disentangles the intricate relationship between TLA on one hand, and the development of MLA and other mediating factors on the other, including level of bilingualism, literacy, age of acquisition of the L2, language use, and language knowledge. Third, the work focuses on a factor that has been the object of an intense debate in psycholinguistics, i.e. the role of awareness in the language learning process, to shed light on the different aspects distinguishing Metalinguistic Knowledge (MLK) and Metalinguistic Awareness (MLA) of the language. A comprehensive analysis of the most influential literature in the field, comparing contrasting perspectives of study, will be propounded to offer a comprehensive overview of the discussed phenomena to better understand the impact they have on multilingual education.

Reading and Non-word Repetition Skills in Bilingual Developmental Dyslexia: The Case of a Greek - Italian Bilingual Dyslexic Adult

Studies of bilinguals with developmental dyslexia learning to read in two alphabetic orthographies have shown that they demonstrate similar reading and phonological short-term memory (STM) deficits in both their languages. The present study aimed at exploring whether dyslexia in adults affects similarly decoding skills in two transparent languages, Greek and Italian, whether there are similar deficits in phonological STM and whether the dominance of one of the two languages affects the manifestation of the deficits. We compared the performance of a young Greek-Italian bilingual dyslexic adult (exposed to Italian from birth, L1: Greek) to that of a young monolingual Greek dyslexic adult, a young Greek-Italian typically developing (TD) bilingual adult (exposed to Italian from birth, L1: Greek) and a young Greek monolingual TD adult. We assessed them in word and non-word reading and non-word repetition. Results showed that bilingual dyslexic adult performed significantly poorer than the bilingual TD adult on all tasks in both languages, suggesting that dyslexia affects similarly decoding and phonological STM across languages. On reading, bilingual outperformed monolingual dyslexic, while monolingual outperformed bilingual TD adult. On phonological STM, both bilinguals outperformed monolinguals. A positive effect of bilingualism was found for reading skills only for dyslexics, while it was found for phonological STM for both dyslexic and TD adults. Finally, the dominance of L1 affected bilinguals' performance in reading but not in non-word repetition, where they showed better performance in Italian, perhaps due to the phonotactic complexity of the Greek orthography compared to Italian.

Inflectional morphology: evidence for an advantage of bilingualism in dyslexia

ABSTRACT It has been shown that morphological skills are particularly enhanced in bilingual children, whereas they are compromised in dyslexics. The aim of this work is that of investigating how bilingualism interacts with dyslexia in a task measuring the subject’s morphological abilities, to verify if the advantage typically found in bilingualism arises also in presence of a linguistic pathology such as dyslexia. We administered a task assessing the ability to generate plural noun inflections of nonwords to 106 children: 24 Italian monolingual dyslexics (mean age 10;0 y.o.), 30 Italian monolingual typically developing children (10;1), 22 bilingual dyslexic children with Italian as L2 (10;4) and 30 bilingual typically developing children with Italian as L2 (10;2). Results point to a positive effect of bilingualism, which also extends to dyslexia, with bilingual dyslexics performing consistently better than monolingual dyslexics, approaching and even surpassing, as in the most difficult conditions, the performance of monolingual unimpaired children.

Consequences of late bilingualism for novel word learning: Evidence from Tamil–English bilingual speakers

Aims and objectives: Recent studies that have investigated novel word learning have demonstrated an advantage for bilinguals compared to monolinguals. The study reported here sought to explore whether a word learning advantage is revealed only for early bilinguals with comparable proficiency in both their languages, or whether such advantages are also observed in individuals with relatively late experience of, and less proficiency in, a second language. Methodology: We tested the acquisition of novel words in an unknown language using identification and naming tasks in three groups of 20 participants: monolingual Tamil speakers; early Tamil–English bilingual speakers; and late Tamil–English bilingual speakers. Data and analysis: The data was analysed using a non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test followed by linear regressions. Findings: The results showed a bilingual advantage for word learning as evidenced by superior performance in both the naming and identification tasks and, critically, late bilinguals outperformed monolinguals. Originality: The results of the present study revealed, for the first time, a bilingual advantage in word learning even when individuals acquire their second language later in life. Significance: The results suggest that the positive effects of bilingualism may generalise beyond non-linguistic tasks, perhaps affecting a general language learning mechanism. Moreover, this seems to occur even in late bilingualism. This is in contrast to the reported effects on cognitive control mechanisms that show only weaker advantages for individuals who learned a second language later in life.

The role of word decoding, vocabulary knowledge and meta‐cognitive knowledge in monolingual and bilingual low‐achieving adolescents' reading comprehension

In this study, we analysed the relationships between word decoding, vocabulary knowledge, meta‐cognitive knowledge and reading comprehension in low‐achieving adolescents and examined whether the strength of these relationships differed between Grade 7 and 9 students and between monolingual and bilingual students. Tests were administered to 328 students in Dutch prevocational education. Multilevel analyses showed positive effects of vocabulary and meta‐cognitive knowledge on reading comprehension that were consistent across grades and across monolinguals and bilinguals. Additionally, we found a positive effect of word decoding for seventh graders, but no effect for ninth graders. There was also a positive effect of bilingualism on reading comprehension when vocabulary differences were controlled. This finding suggests that for bilingual students, reading comprehension is hampered by limited second‐language vocabulary knowledge and that these students will profit more from an increase in vocabulary knowledge than their monolingual peers. The results underline the importance of vocabulary and meta‐cognitive instruction for low‐achieving adolescents.

ბილინგვიზმის დადებითი ეფექტი კოგნიტური განვითარებისა და ენის ათვისებისთვის

Bilingual education and bilingualism still remains a controversial field in educational policy among scientist and in public. This article aims to present the research results on positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive awareness and language acquisition. The first section of the paper presents different attitudes towards bilingualism. The second part of the article describes the research results on positive effects of bilingualism on metacognitive awareness. The third part of the article analyzes the studies on positive effects of bilingualism on language acquisition. I argue that bilingualism has advantages on metacognitive awareness and language acquisition and therefore, it is very important for the educational institutions to develop and implement effective bilingual programs in order to take the advantage of the strengths of bilingualism.

Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language.

Bi- and multilingualism has been shown to have positive effects on the attainment of third and additional languages. These effects, however, depend on the type of bi- and multilingualism and the status of the languages involved (Cenoz, 2003; Jessner, 2006). In this exploratory trend study, we revisit Cummins' Threshold Hypothesis (1979), claiming that bilingual children must reach certain levels of attainment in order to (a) avoid academic deficits and (b) allow bilingualism to have a positive effect on their cognitive development and academic attainment. To this end, we examine the attainment of English as an academic language of 16-years-old school children from Hamburg (n = 52). Our findings support the existence of thresholds for literacy attainment. We argue that language external factors may override positive effects of bilingualism. In addition, these factors may compensate negative effects attributable to low literacy attainment in German and the heritage languages. We also show that low attainment levels in migrant children's heritage languages preempt high literacy attainment in additional languages.

Speech Preparation and Articulation Time in Bilinguals and Men

The current study investigated the relationship between word utterance preparation time and word articulation duration in young adults. In a stratified sample, 40 monolinguals’ (20 males and 20 females) and 40 bilinguals’ (20 males and 20 females) word pronunciation of English words vs. derived, scrambled non-words as well as the hesitation before speaking were measured in milliseconds. Positive effects of bilingualism were found as these speakers showed significantly faster articulation of new non-words than their monolingual counterparts. Sex differences showed that independently of the number of languages men were able to speak, they needed more speech preparation time than women, but no difference in the duration of their word articulation time was observed. Preparation and articulation were correlated in monolingual speakers, but not in bilingual speakers. This suggests that the phonological loop was circumvented in bilingual speakers. We presume that bilinguals map multi-lingual phonology and were thus not saving time during preparation for articulation, but they appeared to have benefited from knowing multiple fine motor mouth movements of various languages during articulation itself. Future research may benefit from controlling the psychological factor of confidence when preparing to speak.

The Role of Language Resources in Labour Market Entry: Comparing Estonia and Ukraine

This paper explores how language proficiency influences the dynamics of labour market entry among young Russians and the native populations in two former Soviet Republics—Estonia and Ukraine. We use data from the Estonian TIES survey and the Youth Transition Survey in Ukraine to compare the speed of finding any first job with that of entry to the first higher-status employment requiring good communication skills, thus revealing the role of language proficiency in the job-entry process. The results from event-history analyses show that proficiency in the official Estonian language plays a pivotal role for labour market entry in Estonia, particularly for higher-status employment. In Ukraine, on the other hand, monolingual Russian-speaking youth do not experience any difficulties in finding high-status first employment, even though the official language of the country is Ukrainian. We do not find any positive effect of bilingualism in either of these countries.

Conceptual transfer: Crosslinguistic effects in categorization and construal

Research on the relationship between language and cognition in bilinguals has often focused on general effects that are common to bilinguals of all language backgrounds, such as the positive effects of bilingualism in various areas of cognitive development (e.g., Bialystok, 2005; Karmiloff-Smith, 1992). However, there are also language-specific effects in the relationship between language and cognition in bilinguals that emerge in the form of cross-linguistic influence and, in many cases, these cross-linguistic effects do not appear to be confined to purely linguistic (e.g., phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic) phenomena. For example, bilinguals’ choice of words for referring to objects and actions, as well as their choice of syntactic and discursive structures for referring to events and situations, often reflect ways of conveying meaning and intentions that are specific to particular language backgrounds.

The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks

Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by changing cognitive demands or by using first/second language in memory tasks. The present findings support the cross-language interactivity hypothesis of bilingual advantage.

Acquiring writing skills in a third language: The positive effects of bilingualism

The Threshold Hypothesis states that it is students who develop a high level of competence in two languages that most benefit from their bilingualism. This is borne out by findings that show children who have added a second language to their linguistic repertoire are better at acquiring a third language. However, fostering additive bilingualism in education is a complex process. The language used at school is definitely crucial, but active use of the target language is also essential for students to attain a high level of competence. In the case of a minority language, active use can be even more important because its development often depends on school instruction alone. This paper reports on a study carried out on 155 bilingual adolescents, aged 12—16, in a school in the Basque Country(Northern Spain). The language of instruction is Basque(minority language). Spanish(majority language) is taught as a subject for 3-4hours a week as is English (foreign language). The students have been learning through the medium of Basque since the beginning of their schooling. Spanish and English were introduced in grade 3 when students were eight. For half of the students(78) their education through the medium of Basque constitutes a maintenance program whilst it is an immersion program for the other half (77). The results show that all the adolescents are highly competent in Basque and Spanish but that it is the students who use Basque in more language domains, who get the best scores in English.

Episodic and semantic memory in bilingual and monolingual children.

Although bilinguality has been reported to confer advantages upon children with respect to various cognitive abilities, much less is known about the relation between memory and bilinguality. In this study, 60 (30 girls and 30 boys) bilingual and 60 (30 girls and 30 boys) monolingual children in three age groups (mean ages 8.5, 10.5 and 12.5 years) were compared on episodic memory and semantic memory tasks. Episodic memory was assessed using subject-performed tasks (with real or imaginary objects) and verbal tasks, with retrieval by both free recall and cued recall. Semantic memory was assessed by word fluency tests. Positive effects of bilingualism were found on both episodic memory and semantic memory at all age levels. These findings suggest that bilingual children integrate and/or organize the information of two languages, and so bilingualism creates advantages in terms of cognitive abilities (including memory). Some sex differences were also found in episodic memory but not in semantic memory. This episodic memory difference was found with younger children.