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Bilingualism In Children

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More than half of the world‘s population is bilingual and many researchers are captivated to explore how language and thinking collaborate, that is, what cognitive abilities are affected by bilingualism and to what extent other factors like language proficiency and age of acquisition are predominant. In the early years of a child’s life the development of both speaking and reasoning occurs at an astonishing pace therefore such research has comprehensive implications on child development and education, and offers theoretical and practical benefits to human cognition. Just several decades ago it was widely considered that young chilren should not be exposed to two (or more) languages as this may lead to confusion and slower cognitive development. …show more content…

From historical point of view, one prominent study by Pearl and Lambert (1962) has started the rise of a new consideration of the young bilinguals, stating that these children actually outperformed their monolingual peers in a number of verbal and non verbal tests or in other words, bilingualism is an asset for a child. Ever since, the research in this area has broaden its focus beyond the language domain, thus is constantly flowing and becoming more complex. This evolution was summarized in a recent review by Bialystok (2015) - one of the most well-known authors, whose work devotes effort on the effect of bilingualism on children’s language and cognitive development, and has recently been expanded to adult processing analyses. After 1962, the initial focus was on the metalinguistic awareness improvement in children (phonology, syntax and morphology) and the types of tasks involved in order to observe possible bilingual advantage. This, sequentially, has lead researchers to target experimental paradigms, addressing both representation of knowledge and attentional control i.e. nonverbal cognitive …show more content…

This, in turn, brought scientists’ attention to interpretations associated with the effects of bilingualism on executive functions and other non-verbal abilities. (Barac et al., 2014). The current trends in the field include increasing involvement of neuroimaging technology and whether the effects of bilingualism (Costa, A., & Sebastián-Gallés, N., 2014) endures throughout adulthood, as well as whether it is beneficial to the cognitive reserve (used for both brain and cognitive

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