Thinking Beyond Deficit: The Benefits of Bilingualism

Managing multilingual classrooms, where many students’ primary language may not always be the language of instruction, is an area of critical importance in international schools. The presence of second language learners in our classrooms can often present us with challenges.

Yet these challenges can sometimes blind us to the potential advantages that bilingual learners bring with them into the classroom. And these advantages go well beyond the obvious addition of diversity of cultures and perspectives that benefits all students in the classroom.

Bilingual learners seem to have particular cognitive advantages that may aid their learning simply because they have learned more than one language.

A group of researchers from the University of British Columbia, Washington State University and the Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group has recently brought together the data from 63 studies involving 6,022 participants into a meta-analysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. This analysis can give us a clearer picture of precisely what cognitive advantages a bilingual learner may have.

What were the results of the analysis?

• Compared with monolinguals, bilinguals across these studies were found to have greater attentional control; increased working memory; greater metalinguistic awareness (the ability to think about language); greater metacognitive awareness (the knowledge and understanding of one’s own cognitive processes); enhanced problem-solving abilities, particularly on tasks requiring executive control ( i.e., planning, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, initiating appropriate actions and thinking and inhibiting inappropriate actions, and selecting relevant sensory information); and enhanced skills in abstract or symbolic reasoning and in creative and divergent thinking.

• By far the largest effect size, and therefore the biggest relative advantage for bilinguals over monolinguals, was for attentional control.

• Advantages in the area of working memory seem to be dependent on the task being performed.

• Bilingual speakers of all ages demonstrated significant advantages.

• Though not specifically investigated as part of the meta-analysis, the researchers note a growing body of evidence which suggests that bilingualism may also “... help offset some age-related cognitive declines by building cognitive reserves that slow the aging process for adults” (p. 209).

So what do these advantages mean for us in the classroom?

Naturally, correlations like these cannot prove a causative link, but the researchers also propose a possible explanation as to why learning a second language to fluency may indeed lead to advantage beyond the ability to speak a second language itself: “These results indicate that the process of acquiring two languages and of simultaneously managing those languages ... allows bilinguals to develop skills that extend into other domains.”

The research unfortunately does not yet present any clear ways in which we may be able to capitalize on these cognitive benefits, however. That is our remit.

The study

Adesope, O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T. and Ungerleider, C. (2010) “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive Correlates of Biligualism.” Review of Educational Research 80 2, pp. 207-245.

---

Please fill out the form below if you would like to post a comment on this article:

Nickname

(this will appear with your comments)

Email

Comments

---

Comments

There are currently no comments posted. Please post one via the form above.

MORE FROM

GORDON ELDRIDGE: LESSONS IN LEARNING