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Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children

Some studies have reported a cognitive advantage for bilingual children over monolinguals and other studies have not. One possible reason for these conflicting results is that the degree of cognitive flexibility is related to individual differences in language dominance and use. More balanced biling...

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Autores principales: Nicoladis, Elena, Hui, Dorothea, Wiebe, Sandra A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137273/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30245662
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01697
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author Nicoladis, Elena
Hui, Dorothea
Wiebe, Sandra A.
author_facet Nicoladis, Elena
Hui, Dorothea
Wiebe, Sandra A.
author_sort Nicoladis, Elena
collection PubMed
description Some studies have reported a cognitive advantage for bilingual children over monolinguals and other studies have not. One possible reason for these conflicting results is that the degree of cognitive flexibility is related to individual differences in language dominance and use. More balanced bilinguals who separate their languages by context might have to learn to reduce inter-language interference and therefore show greater cognitive flexibility. The goal of the present study was to test if language dominance is related to French–English bilingual children’s cognitive flexibility, using three different measures of language dominance: (1) parental reports of dominance, (2) relative scores on vocabulary tests, and (3) knowledge of translation equivalents. We also included two measures of language use: (1) living in a bilingual community (Montreal) or a monolingual community (Edmonton) and (2) language separation. Sixty-two French–English bilingual between 46 and 85 months of age participated. Children’s cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Advanced Dimensional Change Card Sort task. Children’s language knowledge and use was assessed in both French and English using a battery of tests. The results showed that none of the measures of language dominance or language use predicted cognitive flexibility. These results are inconsistent with the claim that individual differences in language dominance and use predict bilinguals’ executive function s.
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spelling pubmed-61372732018-09-21 Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children Nicoladis, Elena Hui, Dorothea Wiebe, Sandra A. Front Psychol Psychology Some studies have reported a cognitive advantage for bilingual children over monolinguals and other studies have not. One possible reason for these conflicting results is that the degree of cognitive flexibility is related to individual differences in language dominance and use. More balanced bilinguals who separate their languages by context might have to learn to reduce inter-language interference and therefore show greater cognitive flexibility. The goal of the present study was to test if language dominance is related to French–English bilingual children’s cognitive flexibility, using three different measures of language dominance: (1) parental reports of dominance, (2) relative scores on vocabulary tests, and (3) knowledge of translation equivalents. We also included two measures of language use: (1) living in a bilingual community (Montreal) or a monolingual community (Edmonton) and (2) language separation. Sixty-two French–English bilingual between 46 and 85 months of age participated. Children’s cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Advanced Dimensional Change Card Sort task. Children’s language knowledge and use was assessed in both French and English using a battery of tests. The results showed that none of the measures of language dominance or language use predicted cognitive flexibility. These results are inconsistent with the claim that individual differences in language dominance and use predict bilinguals’ executive function s. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6137273/ /pubmed/30245662 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01697 Text en Copyright © 2018 Nicoladis, Hui and Wiebe. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Nicoladis, Elena
Hui, Dorothea
Wiebe, Sandra A.
Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title_full Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title_fullStr Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title_full_unstemmed Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title_short Language Dominance and Cognitive Flexibility in French–English Bilingual Children
title_sort language dominance and cognitive flexibility in french–english bilingual children
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137273/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30245662
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01697
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