The Impact of Bilingualism on Development
The Impact of Bilingualism on Development
The relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development has been explored in numerous ways with a variety of outcomes. The history of research on bilingual children contains many false inferences about the effects of bilingualism. Most of the research studies have focused on the outcomes of bilingualism, however, the exact process through which bilingualism and cognition interact are still largely unknown ( Latham, 1995). The relationship between bilingualism and academic achievement draws much attention from both social scientists and policymakers because of the large presence of bilingual students in the American school system. The purpose of this paper is to present the research on bilingualism and its impact on development. First, I will review the importance of defining bilingualism. Second, I will briefly outline past research on bilingualism and its methodological flaw. Next, I will go over the effects of bilingualism by presenting various researches. And finally I will go over some general concerns about bilingualism.
Defining Bilingualism
Simply defining bilingualism operationally turns out to be far from simple. It is a multi-faceted phenomenon. Whether we consider it as a societal or an individual level, one has to accept that there can be no clear cut-off points. How bilingualism is defined will greatly affect the results of a study. A complete description of the "bilingual" sample is critical to an adequate interpretation of any research on bilingualism. For example, Peal and Lambert's (1962, cited in Diaz, 1983) distinction between bilinguals and pseudo-bilinguals made an extremely significant methodological contribution to the field. Pseudo-bilinguals know one language much better than the other, and do not use his or her second language in communication. The true bilingual would hold two languages at an early age and has the facility to communicate in both languages (Diaz, 1983). Their distinction forced investigators to select their bilingual samples with greater care and to measure the sample's actual knowledge of the two languages. Peal and Lamberts study signaled researchers to the positive and negative effects of bilingualism depending on the bilingual situation involved. The effects of such variations within bilinguals should be the object of scientific investigation.
Past Research
Because the measurement of intellectual potential is heavily dependent on verbal abilities, psychologists and educators were concerned about the validity of such tests for bilinguals. The main concern was that the bilingual children would suffer from some kind of language handicap, and this, in turn, would be an obstacle to a fair assessment of their intellectual abilities and potential. Translations of the Binet test were used in the early twentieth century to measure the intelligence of the vast numbers of immigrants to the US. These bilinguals were found to be lower in intelligence than monolinguals (Goddard, cited in Harris, 1992). According to Diaz (1983) the majority of studies prior to 1962 found evidence for the so called "language handicap". Some have argued that the lower intelligence was due to genetic differences between bilinguals and monolinguals (Goddard, cited in Harris, 1992). Others believed it was the experience of learning a second language produced the lower intelligence. The bilingual child was expected to do poorly in school, and as a result feel inferior and frustrated, becoming aggressive or extremely submissive ( Dodson, 1983).
Most early studies in this area were seriously flawed. Bilinguals were often first or second-generation immigrants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who were not very proficient in English (Baker, 1993). Furthermore, they failed to control for group differences in socioeconomic status between bilinguals and monolinguals. Tests were administered in English rather than in their language of greatest proficiency. Performances were compared to samples largely comprised of middle-class, English-speaking monolinguals (Diaz, 1983). Fortunately current studies are now taking those circumstances into consideration when developing a study. The change in sampling and testing has since proven that bilingualism does, at least, ...
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Most early studies in this area were seriously flawed. Bilinguals were often first or second-generation immigrants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who were not very proficient in English (Baker, 1993). Furthermore, they failed to control for group differences in socioeconomic status between bilinguals and monolinguals. Tests were administered in English rather than in their language of greatest proficiency. Performances were compared to samples largely comprised of middle-class, English-speaking monolinguals (Diaz, 1983). Fortunately current studies are now taking those circumstances into consideration when developing a study. The change in sampling and testing has since proven that bilingualism does, at least, not create a disadvantage for the individual, but more likely brings about an intellectual challenge (Dodson, 1983)
Effects of Bilingualism
The widely held view that bilingualism had a negative or, at best, a neutral effect on intelligence and academic achievement was challenged in the 1960's. As mentioned before, Peal and Lambert's (1962, cited in Diaz, 1983) study measured several levels of bilingualism in 364 10 year-old children in Canada. Contrary to findings of previous research, bilinguals performed significantly better than monolinguals in most of the cognitive and subtest.
Some research has suggests that bilingualism is beneficial to mental development because it allows bilingual children to switch easily between two linguistic mediums (Mouw and Xie, 1999; and Cummins, 1977). Children exposed early (by age 3) to two languages had little difficulty becoming proficient in both. Evidence gathered form a wide range of bilingual environments suggests that a milestone in early bilingualism is learning to differentiate the two codes being learned (Galambos & Goldin-Meadow, 1990). According to Galambos and Goldin-Meadow (1990) up to age 2, children expose to two languages appear for the most part to have only one linguistic system developed in the same manner as the linguistic system as a monolingual children. The difference that exists between the two is that the bilingual child's system is a mixed one, which incorporates feature from both languages. By the third year, they can code gradually into two, and each language is assigned rigidly to the person who speaks it or to the context in which it occurs. By age four, bilingual children realize that they can speak two distinct languages and according to Galambos and Goldin-Meadow, this is the moment that bilinguals exhibit a variety of metalinguistic behaviors. For instance, they may begin to translate spontaneously and ask for translations, and sharply reduce mixing of the two codes.
Well-controlled studies have found that there are cognitive advantages to bilingualism. In the Galambos and Goldin-Meadow study found that bilinguals were able to detect more grammatical errors than monolinguals of the same age when the two groups of children language proficiency was equated. Where bilinguals show an advantage can be shown largely shown to be metalinguistic. Metalinguistic awareness is defined by Campbell and Sais (1995) as an "accelerated ability to reflect upon and manipulate the forms of language." (pg.61) Campbell and Sais (1995) suggests that the exposure to a second language at a pre-literate stage may improve metalingusitic skills.
Bilingual children were better at both semantic and phonologically based tasks. This heightened speech-sound awareness may lead to increased reading levels among bilinguals. Further, Bialystok (1988; 1997) has investigated correspondence between letters, words, and their phonological components and has found that bilinguals outperform in all these aspects. More specifically, the results showed that children who differ in their level of bilingualism enjoyed different advantages in solving metalinguistic problems compared with each other and compared with monolingual children. Some researchers have suggested that these advantages may arise from translating messages back and forth across two languages.
Although there are findings of positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive development, Harris (1992) notes that for immigrant children, rapid acquisition of English and retention of native language ability are affected by unobserved factors such as intelligence and motivation, which also have positive effects on academic achievement. There may be many confounds in this type of research. Some researchers think that bilingualism has little or no effect upon cognitive functioning (Rosenblum and Rinker, 1983); others believe it is detrimental; while the third believes it is beneficial.
Moreover, Bialystok (1997) has found positive effects on bilingualism, she also notes that "one must consider the extent to which the child knows a second language, the uses for which that language is employed, and the social context surrounding its use, before predictions about its effect on the child's cognitive development" (pg.56). This leads us back again to the importance of defining bilingualism and controlling all other confounds.
General Concerns
Although there may not be a bilingual personality, i.e., one, which changes with the language, used, bilinguals do hold attitudes toward their bilingualism, which make their personality different from that of the monolinguals. Very few see their languages as interfering with each other. Such attitudes are more typical of inferences made by monolinguals about bilinguals. Further, they feel there are no disadvantages to being bilingual (Grosjean, 1982).
There are two types of environment that that a bilingual may grow up in. This will affect developmental outcomes. The first is additive bilingualism, which refers to learning the second language within a social context that allows the individual to maintain the first language. According to Baker (1993) positive self -concept is associated with this type. Subtractive bilingualism occurs when pressure is exerted to replace the first language with the second one. Additive bilinguals develop first and second language proficiency fully, whereas the subtractive bilingualism stops the first language development. Baker (1993) suggests this may cause a loss of culture and assimilation is associated with subtractive bilingualism.
The controversy over separate storage or shared storage is on going. These two views are remarkably different from each other and may yield results (the impact of bilingualism) that are contradictory. It is important to note what type of theory is behind a study on bilingualism in order to interpret your results accordingly. The separate-storage view assumes the knowledge that bilinguals have their two languages represented in two language specific systems. The shared-storage view assumes the knowledge is represented in a single integrated, language-independent system. The numerous studies in this area have resulted in conflicting results; support for both-concluding that the problem of the nature of the representational system in bilinguals as irresolvable (Harris, 1992)
In general, code switching refers to the switches that occur spontaneously in the language productions of bilinguals in which some words or phrases are presented in one language, and others in the other language. Bentahila and Davis (1992) study patterns of switches among Moroccan-French bilinguals. They found that switches that occur depend on heavily upon the proficiency of the second language. The authors contend that switch patterns arise from the interactions between the communicative intentions and the language background of the respective bilingual groups. Code switching is a deliberate activity rather than a sign of linguistic confusion. Dopke (1992) suggest it may arise as a result of changes to the participants in a conversation, the setting, the discourse type or the topic, or by the speaker's need to clarify a point, to attract or retain the attention of the listener, to quote somebody, and so forth.
The last issue is addressing this question: Why do bilinguals show a reduced short-term memory span for material presented in the less familiar language? When materials to be rehearsed are digits, bilinguals may have different spans in their two languages even when they are equally fluent in both. The reason is that digit length varies between languages. For example, Ellis (1992) conducted a study in which Welsh-English bilinguals performed better when counting or calculating in English (which has a shorter average digit length) than in Welsh.
During the last few decades, many studies have presented evidence showing positive influence of bilingualism on children's cognitive and linguistic abilities. When compared to monolinguals, balanced bilinguals show definite advantages of measures of metalinguistic abilities and concept formation. Generally, current researchers have been able to master most of the methodological difficulties encountered by early studies.
References
Baker, (1993). Encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual education. Colin: Multilingual Maters.
Bentahila, A and Davis, E. (1992). Code-switching and language development. In Hariss, R. (Ed) Cognitive processing in bilinguals. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
Bialystok, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental Psychology, 24, 560-567.
Bialystok, E (1997). Effects of bilingualism and biliteracy on children's emerging concepts of prints. Developmental Psychology, 33, 429-440.
Campbell, J. and Sais, S. (1995). Accelerated metalinguistic (phonological) awareness in bilingual children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13, 61-68.
Cummins, J. (1977). Cognitive factors associated with the atttainment of intermediate levels of bilingual skill. Modern Language Journal, 61, 3-12.
Diaz, 1983. Bilingualism. In Gordon, E (Ed.) Review of research and education. Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research.
Dodson, J. (1983). Living with two languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 4, 410-414.
Dopke, S. (1992). One parent one language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Galambos, J. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (1990). The effects of learning two languages on levels of metalinguistic awareness. Cognition, 43, 1-56.
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Harris, J. (Eds.). (1992). Cognitive processing in bilinguals. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
Latham, A. (1995). The advantages of bilingualism. Educational Leadership, 40, 78-80.
Mouw, T. and Xie, Y. (1999). Bilingualism and the academic achievement of first and second generation Asian Americans: Accommodation with or without assimilation. American Sociological Review, 65, 232-246.
Rosenblum, T. and Rinker, S. (1983). Word magic revisited: monolingual and bilinguals children's understanding of the word-object relationship. Child Development, 54, 773-780.
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