Bilingualism and Creative Abilities in Early Childhood

Abstract

The present study was motivated by a scarcity of knowledge about the impact of early bilingualism on the development of general creativity and mathematical creativity. Two groups of bilingual and monolingual preschoolers (mean age = 60.9 months, SD= 3.1) from the same monolingual kindergarten participated in this study: 15 Russian/Hebrew balanced bilinguals and 15 native Hebrew-speaking monolinguals. All children were administered the Figural Form A (Thinking Creatively with Pictures) from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the Pictorial Multiple Solution Task assessing general creativity, and the Creating Equal Number task measuring mathematical creativity. Bilingual children showed higher creative ability than their monolingual peers. It seems, however, that bilingualism affects various domains of creative ability differently. Consistent with findings of an earlier study (M. Leikin, 2013) the results demonstrate that relationships between creativity components and bilingualism are task dependent, and when differences between bilingual and monolingual children are revealed, they are in favor of bilinguals. In other words, advantages in creative ability in bilinguals are specific rather than general.

The Contribution of Executive Functions in Predicting Mathematical Creativity in Typical Elementary School Classes: A Twofold Role for Updating

“…These studies verify that there is a domain-general part of creativity, perhaps related to insight or divergent thinking (Mumford and Gustafson 1988;Plucker 1999). However, as others have found, most variance is explained by specific abilities (Chen et al 2006;Leikin 2014;Sawyer 2006). For instance, a very creative mathematician is not necessarily creative in another domain such as writing.…”

The Effect of Bilingualism Level on Creative Performance during Preadolescent Period

“…On the one hand, students with a high level of bilingualism obtained significantly better scores than those with a low or medium level in figural creativity (originality, fluency, and flexibility); however, this did not occur for figural elaboration. These results are similar to those obtained by Leikin et al (2014), who found significant differences in all variables of figural creativity, except for elaboration. On the other hand, students with a high level of bilingualism also scored significantly higher than those with a medium level of verbal creativity (originality, fluency, and flexibility).…”

“…To date, several studies have found an advantage of bilingualism in different components of verbal and figural creativity: Originality, fluency, and flexibility (e.g., Kharkhurin, 2011, 2017; Lasagabaster, 2000; Leikin et al, 2014; Ródenas Ríos et al, 2016). Consistently, the results of the present study largely confirm the main hypothesis.…”

“…Although multiple studies have found a positive relationship between bilingualism and creativity (Altamimi, 2016; Ghonsooly & Showqi, 2012; Kharkhurin, 2011, 2017; Lasagabaster, 2000; Lee & Kim, 2011; Leikin, Tovli, & Malykh, 2014; Ricciardelli, 1992a; Ródenas Ríos, Fernández Canca, & Ródenas Ríos, 2016), some researchers have not found any significant difference between bilinguals and monolinguals (Sehic, 2016) and others have found a superiority in bilinguals in figural creativity, but an inferiority in verbal creativity (Kharkhurin, 2010). This difference in the performance of verbal and figural creativity may be because bilinguals have worse language skills, which can hinder the performance of a creative task if it is framed in a verbal context (Kharkhurin, 2010).…”

Relation Between Intelligence And Other Cognitive Abilities Of Monolinguals And Bilinguals

“…On exploring relationship among different degrees of bilingualism and creativity (adaptive creative style, innovative creative style, and creative strengths) it was revealed that the degree of bilingualism was positively associated with creativity, and more specifically, with the adaptive creative style and creative strengths [35]. After examining the relationship between language learning strategies and EFL learners' creativity authors concluded that there is significant relationship between EFL learners total use of language learning strategies and their creative abilities [36].A study conducted to discover the impact of bilingualism on the development of creativity in general and mathematical creativity in particular indicated that the bilingual children depicted higher creative abilities than the monolingual children [37]. A research study conducted on college learners indicated that students who had successfully completed a college level second language courses showed high and positive relation with domains of creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration) , whereas students who had not taken second language courses tend to show opposite relation to creativity measures [38].…”