Effects of classroom bilingualism on task‐shifting, verbal memory, and word learning in children

Abstract

We examined the effects of classroom bilingual experience in children on an array of cognitive skills. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared with children who spoke English as the native language and who had been exposed to Spanish in the context of dual-immersion schooling for an average of two years. The groups were compared on a measure of non-linguistic task-shifting; measures of verbal short-term and working memory; and measures of word-learning. The two groups of children did not differ on measures of non-linguistic task-shifting and verbal short-term memory. However, the classroom-exposure bilingual group outperformed the monolingual group on the measure of verbal working memory and a measure of word-learning. Together, these findings indicate that while exposure to a second language in a classroom setting may not be sufficient to engender changes in cognitive control, it can facilitate verbal memory and verbal learning.

Predictors of processing-based task performance in bilingual and monolingual children

“…The existing literature on bilingual word learning is rather sparse, and it is not entirely clear whether word-learning tasks reduce the gap between bilingual and monolingual performance. In fact, while some studies have reported higher levels of word-learning performance in monolingual participants (Wilkinson & Mazzitelli, 2003), other studies have shown similar levels of word-learning performance in monolinguals and bilinguals (Kan & Sadagopan, 2014), and yet another set of studies has yielded bilingual advantages on word-learning and/or fast-mapping tasks (Kan et al, 2014; Kaushanskaya et al, 2014). Research with monolingual children has demonstrated that the ability to learn novel words is strongly associated with the child’s existing language knowledge so that children with better vocabulary skills are better able to learn novel words (e.g., Ellis Weismer & Evans, 2002; Gray, 2003, 2004).…”

Do Bilinguals Have an Advantage in Theory of Mind? A Meta-Analysis

“…Yow and Markman (2015) used a word learning test that included a Theory of Mind component. Because there is evidence for a bilingual advantage in word learning (Kaushanskaya et al, 2014), better performance on the word learning test might not reflect a bilingual advantage in Theory of Mind per se. Due to this confound, this study was not sufficient data to compute an effect size and were reported in a journal (k = 13) or a dissertation (k = 3).…”

Bilingual education for young children: review of the effects and consequences

“…Kaushanskaya, Gross, and Buac (2014) examined the effects of classroom bilingualism on executive functioning as measured by task shifting as well as measures of verbal memory and word learning. For task switching, they used the Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task (Frye, Zelazo, and Palfai 1995), a task previously found to be performed better by bilingual than monolingual preschool children (Bialystok 1999).…”

“…In these three examples, children who were assigned to groups either because of ethnicity (Mezzacappa 2004) or education program (Esposito and Baker-Ward 2013; Kaushanskaya, Gross, and Buac 2014) were compared to controls for their performance on executive function tasks. A different approach is to use exposure to bilingual education as a scaled variable to determine if it is associated with executive function performance and thereby avoid between-groups comparisons.…”