BenefitsofBilingualism

PealandLamberts(1962)researchonFrenchCanadianchildreninCanadaremainsthemost
importantofthestudieshighlightingtheadvantagesofbilingualism.Theresearchersfoundthat
theFrenchEnglishbilingualchildrenintheirstudyconsistentlyoutperformedmonolingual
childrenonarangeofcognitivetasks.Asaresult,theysuggestedthatbilingualstudentshada
morediversifiedintelligence:amentalflexibility,asuperiorityinconceptformation,anda
morediversifiedsetofmentalabilities(page20).
1.Cognitiveflexibility
Therearetwokeyareasrelatedtocognitiveflexibility.Oneisdivergentthinking.Thisisoften
measuredbyprovidingapersonwithastartingpointforthoughtandaskingthemtogeneratea
wholeseriesofpermissiblesolutions.(Forexample,Thinkofapaperclipandtellmeallthe
thingsyoucoulddowithit.)Theotherareaisconvergentthinking,whichismeasuredbytests
thatprovideanumberofpiecesofinformationapersonmustsynthesisetoarriveatthecorrect
answer.Researchersreportthatbilingualpeopleareconsistentlysuperiortotheirmonolingual
counterpartsinbothdivergentandconvergentthinkingtests.
2.Metalinguisticawareness
Metalinguisticawareness(MA)istheabilitytoanalyselanguage,particularlylanguageforms,in
termsofhowtheyworkandhowtheyareintegratedintothewiderlanguagesystem.MAis,in
effect,knowledgeaboutlanguage.Itcanbedemonstratedatvariouslevels:Phonological
awareness(theunderstandingofsoundunits),wordawareness,andsyntactic(grammatical)
awareness.BilingualstudentsmayhavegreaterMAbecause,inworkingwithmorethanone
languagesimultaneously,theyneedtohaveagreaterawarenessofhoweachlanguageworksand
ofhowthetwolanguagesarebothsimilarand,crucially,different.This,inturn,requiresthemto
thinkaboutthelanguagetheychoosetouse.
3.Communicativesensitivity
Communicativesensitivityrelatestoparticipantslevelofawarenessaboutwhatisgoingonin
anyparticularlanguageinteraction.Bilingualpeopletendtobemorecommunicativelyaware
becausetheyareusedtothinkingaboutwhichlanguagetouseinwhichsituationandtowhich
person.Theyalsohavetopickupcluesandcuesaboutwhentoswitchlanguages.Theresearch
literaturesuggeststhatthismaygiveabilingualpersonincreasedsensitivitytothesocialnature
andcommunicativefunctionsoflanguage.
4.Fieldindependence
Aschildrengrowtomaturity,theybecomemorefieldindependent.Bilingualstudentstendtobe
morefieldindependentatayoungerage.Theybecomemoreanalytic.Fieldindependenceisthe
visualabilitytoseeafieldinitscomponentparts.

Delayeddimensia
Oneoftheareaswherethebilingualadvantageappearstobemostpersistentisntrelatedtoa
particularskillortask:itsageneralbenefitthatseemstohelptheagingbrain.Adultswhospeak
multiplelanguagesseemtoresisttheeffectsofdementiafarbetterthanmonolingualsdo.When
Bialystokexaminedtherecordsforagroupofolderadultswhohadbeenreferredtoaclinicin
Torontowithmemoryorothercognitivecomplaints,shefoundthat,ofthosewhoeventually
developeddementia,thelifelongbilingualsshowedsymptomsmorethanfouryearslaterthanthe
monolinguals.
Thatwouldbeconsistentwithastoryoflearning:weknowthatkeepingcognitivelynimbleinto
oldageisoneofthebestwaystoprotectyourselfagainstdementia.(Hencetheriseofthe
crosswordpuzzle.)Whenthebrainkeepslearning,asitseemstodoforpeoplewhoretainmore
thanonelanguage,ithasmorecapacitytokeepfunctioningatahigherlevel.
Semanticdevelopment
In1972,Worralldesignedatestandtestedtwogroupsofmonolingualandbilingualchildrenat
ages46and69,andpresentedthemwithteststoassesswhethertheyshowedasemanticor
phoneticpreferencewhencategorisingwords.Anexampleofonetaskgiveninthepaperwasto
decidewhichofthetwowordscanandhatweremoresimilartothewordcap.Thesemantic
choicewouldbehat,versusthephoneticwhichwouldbecan.
Shefoundthat,althoughbothmonolingualandbilingualchildrenshowednodifferencesinthe
waytheyunderstoodthewordsused,54%oftheyoungerbilingualchildrenconsistentlyshowed
asemanticpreferenceincontrasttotheirmonolingualpeers.Inmonolingualchildren,semantic
preferenceincreasedwithage,suggestingthatbilingualchildrenreachastageofsemantic
development23yearsearlierthantheirmonolingualpeers.
Metalinguisticawareness
IntheirbookInOtherWords,EllenBialystokandKenjiHakutaexaminetheideathat"the
knowledgeoftwolanguagesisgreaterthanthesumofitsparts."Theyarguethatthelinguistic
benefitsofbeingbilingualaremorethansimplybeingabletospeaktwolanguages.Ifachildis
learningtwolanguageswhosestructuresandrulesaresignificantlydifferentfromeachother,
thiswouldrequirethechildtothinkinmorecomplicatedways.Anexampleofthisisthe
understandingofthearbitrarinessoflabelsforobjectsdiscussedintheaboveparagraph,butalso
beingabletodistinguishbetweenandusetwodifferentgrammaticalorsyntacticalstructures.
Thisenablesthechildtoincreasetheirunderstandingofthestructureoflanguageandgaina
greaterawarenessofmeaninganincreaseofmetalinguisticawareness.
Bialystokarguesthatmetalinguisticawarenessalsoincreasesbilinguals'controloflinguistic
processes,suchashavingagreaterabilitytodetectgrammaticalorsyntacticalerrors,and
recognizewordsincontinuousspeech.Bilingualshavealsobeenfoundtooutperform
monolingualsinreadingability(aneffectmodulatedbytherelationshipofthetwolanguages),
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andbetterreadingskillsinL1weredemonstratedwithaslittleasanhouraweekofL2learning,
suggestingthatbeingbilingualisalsoadvantageousinthedevelopmentofreadingaswellas
spokenlanguage.
Metalinguisticawarenesshasthereforebeenshowntobenefittheindividualintheacquisition
anduseoflanguage,givingbilingualindividuals(whoacquiremetalinguisticawarenessearlier
inlifethantheirmonolingualpeers)afirmadvantage.However,ithasalsobeenproposedthat
metalinguisticawarenesscouldresultinadvantagesinothercognitiveabilitiesbesideslanguage,
givingindividualsageneralisedcognitiveadvantageovermonolinguals(seebelow).
Executivefunctions
Executivefunctionsarethosecognitiveprocessessuchasproblemsolving,mentalflexibility,
attentionalcontrol,inhibitorycontrol,andtaskswitching.Bilingualindividualshavebeenshown
overanumberofdifferenttasksandsituationstobebetteratsuchprocessessuggestingan
interactionbetweenbeingbilingualandexecutivefunctions.
Bialystokmakesadistinctionbetweentwotypesofprocessingthataidchildreninlanguage
developmentanalysis,whichinvolvestheabilitytorepresentandunderstandabstract
information,andcontrol,whichinvolvestheabilitytoselectivelyattendtospecificaspectsof
structureswhilstignoringirrelevantinformation.Theliteratureconcludesthatitisintheaspect
ofcontrolthatbilingualshavebeenfoundtohaveanadvantageovertheirmonolingualpeers
whenitcomestocognitiveabilities.
Inonestudy,Bialystokadministeredanonlinguisticcardsortingtasktoherparticipantsthat
requiredflexibilityinproblemsolving,inhibitingirrelevantinformation,aswellasrecognizing
theconstancyofcertainvariablesinthefaceofchangesintherules.Shefoundthatbilingual
childrensignificantlyoutperformedtheirmonolingualpeersinthistask,suggestingearly
developmentofinhibitoryfunctionthataidssolvingproblemsthatrequiretheabilityto
selectivelyfocusattention.
Theenhancedmentalflexibilitythatdevelopsinbilingualsinfluencesmorethantheirproblem
solvingorlinguisticskills.Languageappearstochangethewaytheworldisperceivedbetween
individualsthatspeakdifferentlanguages.
Thinkingintwolanguages
Incontrasttotheearlyresearchonbilingualismdiscussed,morethan150majorresearchstudies
nowbroadlyconcludethatwhenchildrencontinuetodeveloptheirabilitiesintwoormore
languagesthroughouttheirprimaryschoolyears,theygainadeeperunderstandingoflanguage
andhowtouseiteffectively.Inotherwords,researchsincethe1960shasconsistentlyfoundthat
bilingualismisacognitive,social,andeducationaladvantageandthat,consequently,bilingual
studentstendtooutperformtheirmonolingualpeersinkeycognitivetasks.