Discuss the Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism in Executive Function

Wenting Gui

◆Abstract：Bilingualism is considered likely to affect the cognitive abilities of language users. However， as an increasing number of Chinese families settle in Australia， some of the next generation immigrants suffer language attrition and gradually become English monolingual， which may lead to think about whether it has a positive or negative effect to those immigrants. Bilingualism can be defined as an ability to function two or more distinct languages （such as English and Chinese） at the same level as native speakers. The essay will discuss the cognitive benefits of bilingualism by comparing with the monolingualism to state that Chinese families in Australia should not enable their next generation lost their bilingual ability and to provide effective suggestions on how to keep the next generation to maintain their bilingual abilities. It will focus on the executive function by reviewing the previous studies.

◆Key words：cognitive benefits; bilingualism; monolingualism; executive function

Introduction

Before the 1960s， the generally point is that bilingualism may not facilitate bilinguals cognitive development. Researchers hold the view that bilingualism may detriment the intelligent development of children. Bilingual children think in one particular language and speak with another， which may lead ideological uncertainty and slow response of children. Nevertheless， those early researches have a methodology problem that is the experiments do not consider the culture difference and the age， which may make the result lack sufficient evidence. At present， a lot of studies shows that the cognitive benefits of bilingualism overmatched the monolingualism.

Executive Function

Recent years， researchers have found that executive function is one of the cognitive benefits of bilingualism. According to Baddeley （1996）， executive function refers to the central portion of the phonological loop and visual-spatial sketchpad in the working memory， which allows stores and processes the information simultaneously. Its main function includes coordinating the operation of different tasks simultaneously， altering operation strategies， suppressing the irrelevant information of the current operation， maintaining and operating the information in a long-term memory.

First， bilingual children outperform monolingual in the ability of inhibitory and attention control of the executive function. Generally speaking， if a child wants to correct a bad behaviour， then the inhibitory ability is needed to help. In the study of Bialystok （2010）， 6 years old bilingual children and monolingual children were asked to complete the global-local test in which the stimulus was a visual stimulus that can change to local or global features. For example， lowercase d constitute a capital letter D. Participants would response appropriately to each feature. The result reveals bilingual children have more skills in language control and working memory， which shows the ability to deal with conflict information and suppress interference information in the independent task. Similarly， Bialystok （1999） conducted an experiment by using “moving word task” （Bialystok， 1999， pp639） to illustrate that the level of attention control of monolingual children is weaker than the bilingual children. Bialystok compared 30 bilingual children with 30 monolingual children by asking the children what the card says and distracted childrens attention with toy bunnies. The result shows that bilingual children perform better when encountering interference and draw focusing attention on the processing of problem-solving. That is， the toy bunnies as an interference factor to disturb the participants while most of the bilingual children could keep the focus on the task without interference.

Second， researches indicate that the facilitation of executive function in children bilingualism reflects in the selection of operation strategies. Dimensional Change Card Sort task （DCCS） as a method to test childrens executive function， which can not only indicate the ability of inhibitory control but the ability of planning and organisation. According to Bialystok & Martin （2004）s study， DCCS task was used in study 1 to illustrate bilingual children scored higher than monolingual children when handling “moderate representational demands” （Bialystok， 1999， pp325）.In study 2 and 3， bilingual children are more sensitive to perceptual elements， which indicating that bilingual would response more quickly than the monolingual when the task changed， and bilingual would change their operation strategies as required.

Third， researchers show that the facilitation of executive function in children bilingualism in working memory capacity. Baddeley （1986） argues that the capacity of working memory depends on the strategy used by executive function for the project of memory material. Moreover， the organisation of memory materials can expand the capacity of working memory. Thus， the executive function of bilingual may help by using appropriate organisation strategies to achieve greater working memory capacity. In the study of Feng （2009）， bilingual and monolingual with equal length of memory were asked to remember the position of a group of objects. The result indicates that bilinguals are good at organising the stimulus material to gain greater working memory capacity， comparing the monolinguals in the equal working memory capacity.

As a result， compared with monolingual children， the executive function can stimulate the development of the brain， perceive the task change， have strong thinking and practical abilities， so that the bilingual children have a strong ability of anti-interference， focus attention， planning， organisation and complicated problem-solving.

Conclusion

In conclusion， researchers have proved that the cognitive benefits of bilingualism can facilitate the development of bilingual children by comparing with the monolingual children. Bilingualism has advantages in childrens practical and thinking ability， which can make children to consciously classify the information and judge the task to give corresponding strategies. Due to the cognitive benefits of bilingualism， many ethnic Chinese families should pay attention to the bilingual education. The parents can encourage those immigrants to speak Chinese as a habit at an early age and to cultivate their interests of Chinese culture. Therefore， they can practice Chinese at home and also can select Chinese as a selective course. However， the bilingualism does improve childrens cognitive development under the balanced or native control bilingualism condition because most of the researches were conducted in that situation. Hence， the limitation of this essay is that it based on the hypothesis that each language of a bilingual is native-like and does not consider the unbalanced bilingualism. Besides， it has a comparative analysis of the cognitive benefits of bilingualism， without discussing its negative effects and possible problems.

Reference

[1]Baddeley， A. D. （1986）. Working memory. New York： Oxford University Press.56-559.

[2]Baddeley， A. （1995）. Working memory （1st ed.）. Oxford： Clarendon Press.255.

[3]Baddeley， A. （1996）. Exploring the Central Executive. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A， 49（1），5-28.

[4]Bialystok，E.（1999）.Cognitive Complexity and Attentional Control in the Bilingual Mind. Child Development，70（3），636-644. http：//dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00046.

[5]Bialystok， E. （2010）. Global–local and trail-making tasks by monolingual and bilingual children： Beyond inhibition. Developmental Psychology， 46（1）， 93-105. http：//dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015466.

[6]Bialystok， E.， & Martin， M. （2004）. Attention and inhibition in bilingual children： evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science， 7（3）， 325-339.

[7]Working memory and bilingualism： An investigation of executive control and processing speed - ProQuest. （2017）. Search.proquest.com. Retrieved 2 June 2017， from http：//search.proquest.com/docview/305042100/.

[8]Laurent， A.， & Martinot， C. （2009）. Bilingualism and phonological awareness： the case of bilingual （French–Occitan） children. Reading and Writing， 23（3-4）， 435-452. http：//dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9209-3.