Chapter 8 - Bilingualism Flashcards
(13 cards)
define bilingualism
the acquisition of two languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical rules
**bilingualism is not the norm in North America, but very common in Europe and many other regions
does learning two languages in childhood slow down language development?
ultimately, no. this is a misconception.
bilingual children may have smaller vocabularies in each of their languages than monolingual children have in their one language, but children who learn two languages simultaneously achieve basic language milestones at the same ages as monolingual children.
does knowing two languages make cognitive processes (e.g., thinking) more difficult or does it enhance them?
studies have found that bilingualism is associated with both advantages and disadvantages.
what is the main disadvantage associated with bilingualism?
bilinguals have a slight disadvantage in terms of raw language processing speed and verbal fluency (the ease with which people can think of words).
evidence suggests that when bilingual people are reading, listening, or speaking in a specific language, to some extent both their first language (L1) and their second language (L2) are simultaneously active. i.e., there is no way to turn off L1 when using L2, or vice versa. this creates some cross-language interference that slows language processing.
what advantages are associated with bilingualism?
when middle-class bilingual participants who are fluent in both languages are studied, they tend to score somewhat higher than monolingual participants on measures of:
-cognitive flexibility
-analytical reasoning -selective attention
-metalinguistic awareness
Ellen Bialystok
-researcher at York University focused on the effects of bilingualism on children’s cognition
-she suggests that there are some cognitive benefits for children and adults
What are Ellen Bialystok’s 3 hypotheses that have been supported by the results of research conducted in the past several years?
1) since cognitive executive processes are necessary to deal successfully with the use of two languages, she suggests that bilingual children should develop control over executive processes earlier than monolingual children.
2) as adults, the enhanced executive control characteristic of bilinguals should afford them advantages in cognitive tasks implicating executive processing.
3) since executive processes are one of the first cognitive abilities to decline with age, bilinguals, because of their “continued reliance” on executive processes for dealing with their two languages, should show delayed decline relative to monolingual adults.
on what types of tasks do bilingual children show greater facility, according to Ellen Bialystok?
tasks involving misleading or distracting information and where response choice is involved
what executive processes does Ellen Bialystok link to bilingual advantages over monolinguals?
-selective attention
-attentional inhibition to distractions
-switching among competing alternatives
why does it make sense that bilinguals excel at attention-control tasks?
because bilinguals often face tasks that require managing two active languages
**note: there have also been some failures to replicate these findings, potentially due to variations in the demands of the specific tasks studied or variations among participants in how much experience they have switching between languages
what area of development, beyond cognitive skills, is positively affected by bilingualism?
bilinguals show enhanced social skills
what have studies found regarding how early the cognitive developmental effects of a bilingual environment begin to appear?
studies have found that the cognitive effects of a bilingual environment begin to appear before an infant even acquires language - as young as 7 months old. these infants are called “crib bilinguals” and they show enhanced ability to control and switch attention.
what does Bialystok’s research suggest about bilingualism and age-related cognitive decline?
bilingualism may help attenuate age-related losses in certain areas of cognition.
a study on dementia found that bilingual patients experienced the onset of dementia about 4 years later than monolingual patients.
**note: more research is needed on this issue, as critics note that studies in this area have some methodological weaknesses that make far-reaching conclusions premature.
