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Wiktoria Godawa

Mrs. DeBock

English IV Honors

9 March 2017

Bilingualism and its Effect on the Brain of a Child

A bilingual child is one who has either spoken a second language from birth, or learned a

second language somewhere along the way and have become fluent at it. While language

stimulates the brain, speaking two or more languages stimulates additional parts of the brain. On

the other hand, speaking two or more languages may hinder an average childs development of a

single language. Bilingual children may possess exceptional attentional control, improved

memory flexibility, or contrastingly, hindered vocabulary development.

Bilingual children may have the ability to ignore information that is not pertinent to the

task presented to them. This is known as attentional control or executive function, and it requires

special control of the brain to achieve. Barac and Bialystok point out that bilinguals are inclined

to perform better on executive control tests (413). It is believed that bilingual children have

inhibited a wider control over this due to their ability to control multiple languages at once.

Fraser Lauchlan describes a study conducted in 1999 by Bialystok, in which a nonverbal task

using cards was used to determine the level of attentional control each subject possessed (9). By

conducting this study, the results of bilingual children could be compared to those of

monolingual children. Should bilinguals perform better, the implication of their facilitated

control over executive function would be supported. On the other hand, should monolinguals
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perform better, it suggests that bilingualism inhibits executive function. Finally, if the results are

approximately equal, then there may be no effect of bilingualism on heightened attentional

control. The results are as follows: bilingual children outperformed the monolingual subjects,

suggesting that bilingual children have an advantage over monolinguals in nonverbal abilities

(Lauchlan 9). As shown by the results, bilingual children have heightened access to their ability

to control what to focus on with ease. In a study conducted by Bialystok and Codd, as described

by Goldman, Negen, and Sarnecka, in which children were asked to count the number of blocks

in each tower to determine which tower had more. Bilinguals performed better on the task, which

according to Bialystok and Codd was because bilingual subjects were better at ignoring the size

of the blocks and attending to their number (957). The better a child can ignore the size of the

blocks and focus solely on the quantity, the better their attentional control is. As shown by the

results, bilinguals performed better, once again showing their heightened attentional control.

Opponents argue that bilingual children have inhibited attentional control. A study,

known as the Simon task, has shown that there may be no correlation between bilingualism and

improved attentional control. In the Simon Task, the subject must pay attention to the color of a

square on a screen, pressing the left key for green and the right key for red, all while ignoring its

physical position (Goldman, et al. 956-957). The Simon Task is yet another example of a study

that was used to analyze the performance of bilingual children on nonverbal tasks dealing with

attentional control. In contrast to other results, according to Morton and Harper in Goldman,

Negen, and Sarneckas article, both bilingual and monolingual children with comparable

ethnicity and socioeconomic status performed equivalently on the Simon Task (957). Harper and

Goldmans results show the possibility that bilingual children have no more attentional control
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than that of a typical monolingual child. Bilingualism may, in fact, not be a reason for

heightened attentional control at all. Namazi and Thordardottir have concluded, as summarized

in Goldman, Negen, and Sarneckas article, that not bilingualism, but strength of working

memory determined how well a child performed on the task (957). A working memory is the

brains ability to store information necessary to complete a task in the given moment. A strong

working memory allows the subject to be more successful at tasks such as the Simon Tasks.

Furthermore, bilingualism may impact memory flexibility. According to Brito and Barr,

memory flexibility is crucial to learning because it allows past experience to be applied to a

range of future situations that are unlikely to be perceptually equivalent to the initial learning

episode (812). Bilingual children may be capable of improved memory flexibility, which can be

credited to their dexterity in controlling two languages simultaneously. To test this, it is

imperative to study a childs ability to remember information given to them a period of time

before being assessed. Brito and Barr describe an experiment in which an experimenter

demonstrates a sequence of actions using a puppet to a child, and after 30 minutes the child

receives the puppet, observing their reaction (813-814). When receiving the puppet following the

30 minute period, the subject can either display strong memory flexibility and repeat the actions,

or the subject has forgotten about the sequence of actions once presented to them. The results

hold true the idea that bilingual children possess a higher memory flexibility. Nine out of the

fifteen bilingual children repeated the actions with the puppet, while only one out of the fifteen

monolingual children successfully performed the actions (Brito and Barr 814). Bilingual children

undoubtedly outperformed their counterparts, showing a robust memory flexibility.

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Although a profound memory flexibility may be present, others argue that bilingualism

hinders vocabulary expansion in childhood years. Child care nurses who were instructed to study

language development in children reported that bilingual children displayed signs of slowed

development (Nayeb, et al. 201). Monolingual children only have one language to focus on,

allowing them deeper progression of their vocabulary. On the contrary, bilingual children must

grow in two languages at once, constraining their vocabulary development as a whole.

Researchers have looked into the possibility of language impairment being linked to

bilingualism. While experimenting this idea, researchers have found that impairment may not be

connected to bilingualism, but the results may be hindered due to bilingualism in itself.

Assessing and diagnosing bilingual children with language problems is a complicated issue as

language tests may be sensitive also to bilingualism. This may lead to miss-diagnosing bilingual

children as LI or SLI (Korkman, et al. 950). Bilingualism, as explained earlier in this paragraph,

can take a toll on vocabulary development. With a less developed vocabulary, a child may

consequently show signs of language impairment when compared to monolingual children in

tests such as these. A key note is made in this article, which explains that bilingual children are

victims of misdiagnoses in language impairment, since bilingual children both with and without

language impairment often experience slowed vocabulary growth (Korkman, et al. 946). In

conclusion, bilingual children experience slowed development of vocabulary because of the

constant need to expand on two languages, doubling the amount of knowledge the child must

gain.

Bilingual Children may possess exceptional attentional control, improved memory

flexibility, or contrastingly, hindered vocabulary development. Several studies exhibit results to

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support that bilingual children hold higher access to executive control, while several studies also

refute that concept. In addition, bilingualism may expand memory flexibility, while others argue

that bilingualism inhibits vocabulary expansion at a normal rate. Regardless, bilingual children

possess advantages in day to day tasks as a result of their ease in switching between languages

simultaneously.
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Works Cited

Barac, Raluca and Ellen Bialystok. "Bilingual Effects on Cognitive and Linguistic Development:

Role of Language, Cultural Background, and Education." Child Development, vol. 83,

no. 2, Mar/Apr2012, pp. 413-422. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01707.x.

Brito, Natalie and Rachel Barr. "Influence of Bilingualism on Memory Generalization during

Infancy." Developmental Science, vol. 15, no. 6, Nov. 2012, pp. 812-816. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.1184.x.

Goldman, Meghan C., et al. "Are Bilingual Children Better at Ignoring Perceptually Misleading

Information? A Novel Test." Developmental Science, vol. 17, no. 6, Nov. 2014, pp.

956-964. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/desc.12175.

Korkman, Marit, et al. "Does Simultaneous Bilingualism Aggravate Children's Specific

Language Problems?." Acta Paediatrica, vol. 101, no. 9, Sept. 2012, pp. 946-952.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2012.02733.x.

Lauchlan, Fraser. "The Nature Of Bilingualism And Implications For Educational

Psychologists." Educational & Child Psychology 31.2 (2014): 8-20. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.

Nayeb, Laleh, et al. "Child Healthcare Nurses Believe That Bilingual Children Show Slower

Language Development, Simplify Screening Procedures and Delay Referrals." Acta

Paediatrica, vol. 104, no. 2, Feb. 2015, pp. 198-205. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1111/apa.12834.