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Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports ofUkraine

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University

Research Work

“Effects of Bilingualism on theIndividual: Intelligence, Group

Identification, Character Formation,Educational Problems”

Done by:

Daria Masliieva

Master course

(English philology)

1

Luhansk, 2014

PLAN

Introduction................................2

I. Effects of Bilingualism on Intelligence. 4

II. Effects of Bilingualism on Group Identification................................10III. Effects of Bilingualism on Character Formation......................................13IV. Effects of Bilingualism on Educational Problems.......................................15

Conclusion..................................19List of references.......................21

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3

Introduction

It is an undeniable fact that we are all in touch

with language throughout our lives. We use a language to

communicate with people, to express our thoughts and

feelings, to identify ourselves with our culture, and to

understand the world around us. The language we speak

shapes our mind and character, makes us a member of a

certain culture and community, and influences our

cognitive abilities and the way of thinking. Today, in

fact, more and more of the world’s population become

bilingual or multilingual.

For many years scientists have had continuous

discussions and conducted multiple researches concerning

bilingual children and their mental abilities relating to

intelligence and education. Researchers have fallen into

two main directions in answering this question. Some

researchers claim that bilingualism is a negative

phenomenon that has detrimental effects on bilingual.

Thus, experts believed that a bilingual person could not

be an intellectual, since he was carrying two or more

languages in his head. However, the situation has changed

dramatically over the past several decades, with the

development and use of new testing. Recently, a number of

4

researchers have proved that bilingualism positively

affects cognitive, personality, and educational

developments. Children with bilingual ability offer an

opportunity for researchers’ to explore the connections

between language and thought. Bilingual children have

advantages in education, due to cognitive development,

divergent thought, and mental flexibility [2].

Researchers have shown that the bilingual brain can

have better attention and task-switching capacities than

the monolingual brain, thanks to its developed ability to

inhibit one language while using another. In addition,

bilingualism has positive effects at both ends of the age

spectrum: Bilingual children as young as seven months can

better adjust to environmental changes, while bilingual

seniors can experience less cognitive decline [16].

Surprisingly, that in the past, bilingualism was

viewed as a worry for the parents. It was believed that

it caused confusion in children and it impeded their

first language learning abilities. However, since that

time, a different picture has immerged, a picture which

is optimistic and supportive of bilingualism in

childhood. The turning point took place, however, in 1962

with the publication of Peal and Lambert’s study of

bilingual children in Montreal schools. Ironically, the

5

original intention of the study was to document how

bilingualism negatively affected intellectual performance

so that appropriate solutions could be developed to solve

the existing problems. However, the result of the

research was unexpected. The bilingual group performed

significantly better than the monolingual group on most

of the measures, including verbal intelligence [11].

The aim of this research paper is to focus on the

influence of bilingualism on different aspects of human

life, such as level of intelligence and cognitive skills,

group identification, character formation and emotional

state of a person, and educational problems that may

occur.

6

I. Effects of Bilingualism on Intelligence

Cognitive ability relates to mental activity, such as

thinking, remembering, learning, or using language.

Research demonstrates the differences in cognitive

functioning between monolinguals and bilinguals. Analysis

and control are language components that develop later in

monolinguals than in bilinguals [2]. These abilities

refer to representation and selective attention in

language that aid in comprehension and understanding.

Adults who speak two languages in childhood are

profoundly affected in their cognitive development. This

advantage can manifest itself in several ways. The

majority of field researchers conclude that this ability

allows bilinguals the advantage of diversity and

flexibility in cognition to a significant level over

monolinguals. Latham proposes that bilingual children

naturally develop cognitive representation verbally, non-

verbally, and symbolically. Truly bilingual students

surpass monolingual students on many intelligence tests,

both verbal and nonverbal. Language fluency is determined

by listening, speaking, and reading abilities [9].

7

To maintain the relative balance between two

languages, the bilingual brain relies on executive

functions, a regulatory system of general cognitive

abilities that includes processes such as attention and

inhibition. Because both of a bilingual person’s language

systems are always active and competing, that person uses

these control mechanisms every time she or he speaks or

listens. This constant practice strengthens the control

mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions [16].

It is believed that bilinguals have an advantage in

mental skill sets and flexibility. The dominant belief at

this time is that there is a superiority of divergent

thinking abilities among bilinguals. The ability of

children with two languages gives rise to control and

divergent ability over problems of a nonverbal nature due

to the diversified skill sets at work. Therefore the

problem solving process is different from others used

previously at a young age by children who only have a

single language knowledge base. Due to this flexibility,

and increased knowledge base, bilingual children are more

likely to express themselves without the constraints of

symbols [15].

Being bilingual can have tangible practical benefits.

The improvements in cognitive and sensory processing

8

driven by bilingual experience may help a bilingual

person to better process information in the environment,

leading to a clearer signal for learning. This kind of

improved attention to detail may help explain why

bilingual adults learn a third language better than

monolingual adults learn a second language. The bilingual

language-learning advantage may be rooted in the ability

to focus on information about the new language while

reducing interference from the languages they already

know. This ability would allow bilingual people to more

easily access newly learned words, leading to larger

gains in vocabulary than those experienced by monolingual

people who aren’t as skilled at inhibiting competing

information [16].

However, since levels of bilingualism exist, the

affect to cognitive development is correlative. In a

study conducted by Ellen Bialystok, both monolingual and

bilingual children were shown sets of cards depicting red

and blue boats and rabbits. They were then asked to

separate the cards based first on color and later on

subject. The bilingual children demonstrated the ability

to separate and distinguish between the first

instructions and the second set of instructions. The

tendency was for the bilingual subjects to perform as

requested with disregard to the previous test’s

9

parameters. They, therefore, demonstrated a level of

superiority in the cognitive function of analysis and

control. Single language children are less effective at

solving problems, which contain distracting, but

pertinent information. Also according to Bialystok’s

research, this superiority is expected to continue

because of the representative function (higher order

rule) as awareness and inhibition is needed to solve the

problem. Representative function relates directly to

executive functioning [3].

It has been acknowledged that learning a second

language has a positive effect on intellectual growth. It

enriches and enhances a child’s mental development; it

leaves students with more flexibility in thinking,

greater sensitivity to language, and a better ability for

listening. It also improves a child’s understanding of

his native language.

There are a lot of different experiments conducted

and theories suggested which corroborate that bilingual

children have a higher level of cognitive development

than that of monolingual children.

Bialystok (1986) has shown that children’s

bilingualism positively affects their increasing ability

to solve problems involving high levels of control of

10

linguistic processing. In this respect, an empirical

study was carried out on immigrant students who are

originally Finnish and living in Sweden. The purpose was

to assess the extent to which students’ acquisition of

Swedish academic skills is related to their Finnish

proficiency [3].

A variety of tests in both languages were used; most

assessed cognitive and academic abilities such as

vocabulary knowledge, synonyms, antonyms, etc. as well as

academic achievement in reading, math and other school

subjects. The data can be summarized as follows: Those

who attended school in Finland (prior to immigration)

approached the level of achievement of normal Swedish

pupils in the written comprehension test considerably

more often than those who began school in Sweden. Those

who attended school in Finland for at least three years

did best. Research has shown positive effects of

bilingualism on the following metalinguistic abilities:

early word distinction; sensitivity to language structure

and detail; detection of ambiguities; correction of

ungrammatical sentences and detection of language mixing

and control of language processing [3].

Furthermore, bilingualism enhances problem solving

where the solutions depend on selective attention or

11

inhibitory control. This advantage seems to continue

throughout the bilingual's lifespan and is even present

in elderly bilinguals [3].

The advantage shown by bilinguals – as discussed by

Ellen Bialystok – is found also in certain

metalinguistic abilities, that is, our capacity to

analyze different aspects of language (sounds, words,

syntax and so on) and, if needed, to talk about these

properties. But the advantage is present only when

selective attention or inhibitory control is needed to do

the task. This is the case when a problem contains a

conflict or an ambiguity such as counting words in a

correct sentence, using a new (or made-up) name for an

object in a sentence, judging that a sentence such as

"apples grow on noses" is syntactically grammatical even

though it contains a semantic anomaly, and so on [15].

When the metalinguistic task requires the analysis of

representational structures, then monolinguals and

bilinguals obtain similar results. This occurs when the

task is to explain grammatical errors in a sentence

substitute one sound for another, interchange sounds, etc

[15].

One domain where it would appear that bilinguals do

less well than monolinguals is in vocabulary tests such

12

as choosing a picture that illustrates the word spoken by

the experimenter. This is not surprising, however, as

bilingual children start being affected by the

complementarity principle which states that bilinguals

usually acquire and use their languages for different

purposes, in different spheres of life, and with

different people. When bilingual children are evaluated

in terms of both their languages, then the results

improve greatly [15].

In a study of a sample of Mexican-American bilingual

pre-school students, Diaz and Padilla (1985) reported

positive effects of bilingualism on several age

appropriate tasks of cognitive ability. A total of 32

preschool students who attended Spanish-English bilingual

pre-school programs in Texas, were videotaped while

performing three different tasks: block designs,

classification, and story-sequencing tasks. After brief

instructions, children were asked to work on their own

for a period of five minutes for each task. The effects

of bilingualism on performance on the three tasks were

analyzed in multiple-regression equations controlling for

ability in the first language and months of preschool

education. Children’s degree of bilingualism predicted

significant portions of performance variance in both

classification and story-sequencing tasks [6].

13

Starting in the 1960’s and continuing into the

1990’s, dozens of studies were conducted on the

relationship between learning a second language early in

life and cognitive ability. Robinson (1992) summarized

many of them in one of his articles by concluding: “the

picture that emerges is ... a youngster whose experience

with two language systems seems to have left him or her

with a mental flexibility, a superiority in concept

formation, and a more diversified set of mental

abilities.” The studies also demonstrated that children

who have studied a foreign language perform better on

standardized tests and tests of basic skills in English,

math and social studies [12].

Latham believes that metalinguistic awareness is

strengthened by bilingual capability. This awareness

allows an individual to associate different sources of

information in language and consequently apply it to

other areas of thought and aids in problem solving

ability. This ability is a resource in word recognition.

Intelligence development is positively impacted by

metalinguistic awareness. Metalinguistic awareness is a

key contributor to divergent thinking as well as

creativity and the ability to think freely. It has been

supported by many years of research in the field that

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generally bilingual subjects are superior to monolinguals

in the arena of divergent thinking [9].

There is a hypothesis that working memory is enhanced

in bilingual children, particularly in conditions for

which the other core components of executive control are

also required. There are two reasons for this hypothesis.

First, from the perspective of unity, the established

effect of bilingualism on some components of the

executive function will necessarily involve all of the

components, including working memory, through their

common foundation. Second, from the perspective of

diversity, the joint activation of both languages for

bilinguals in language processing requires not only

inhibition and selection but also maintenance of

representations of context, interlocutors, and discourse

– all functions of working memory [9].

Jim Cummins argues that the cognitive factor has a

central role in the speed and success with which the

language is acquired. He also states that other

individual factors, such as motivation, and

conversational factors that determine the size and type

of exposure to the second language, are also central to

the acquisition process and interact with cognitive

factors [5].

15

16

II. Effects of Bilingualism on Group Identification

It is significant to notice that there are different

points of view concerning the question of how

bilingualism influences people’s group identification and

personal development.

On the level of personality development, it is

believed that speaking two languages is a negative factor

in personality or identity development [1]. There is a

number of researchers claim that bilingualism has

detrimental effect on personality which leads to tension

and emotional lability. It is sometimes stated that there

is a conflict between the child’s bilingualism and his

personality and emotion [7].

Appel and Muysken emphasize importance of use of

minority languages. Recognition of the language (and

culture) of minority groups will improve the social and

cultural relations between these groups and the rest of

society. The reinforcement of the cultural identity of

minority groups (through minority language teaching) will

help reduce the likelihood of polarization and socio-

political friction [1].

The political unity of a country will be fostered if

everybody is educated in the same national language. In

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the USA the slogan 'one nation, one flag, one language'

was used in this context. The minority language is

thought to have an important cultural and political

meaning for minority groups. The use of minority

languages will strengthen the political identity of these

groups, and this could endanger political unity,

especially in the case of regional or ethnic independence

movements [1].

It is important to notice that acquisition of a

second language often leads to cultural assimilation.

According to this view, a learner can only become

proficient in a second language if he or she wants to

adapt to the cultural values of the target-language

community. For instance, according to Gardner, students

while learning a second language are acquiring symbolic

elements of a different ethnolinguistic community; the

student has 'to make them part of his own language

reservoir. This involves imposing elements of another

culture in one's own life space. As a result the

student's harmony with his own cultural community and his

willingness or ability to identify with other cultural

communities become important considerations in the

process of second-language acquisition'. Statements like

this one suggest that cultural assimilation, or at least

the adoption of the main cultural values of the target-

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language community, is an important condition for

successful second-language acquisition [1].

However, there is another point of view concerning

this question. Because of the rather low correlations

between social and psychological variables (inc1uding

cultural attitudes) and second-language proficiency this

idea lacks strong supportive evidence. Furthermore, one

can point to studies of societal bilingualism.

Bilinguals, especial1y those in an additive context, do

not seem to be torn between two cultures associated with

the respective languages. Of course, languages are

related to cultures because of their habitual use in

certain cultural contexts, but this does not necessarily

imply that speaking a certain language also means

adopting the culture and life style of the community in

which the language is the dominant medium of interaction.

If this were the case, proficient bilinguals should be

more or less forced to live with two possibly conflicting

systems of norms and values. Bilinguals do not have to

identify with the culture of the target community to be

able to acquire adequate competence in the language of

that community [1].

In subtractive bilingual groups different reactions

to the strain of biculturalism are found. Child (1943)

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did a now classic study of the ethnic attitudes of

second- generation Italians in the USA. His results

showed three types of reactions: (a) an identification

with American social and cultural values, (b) rejection

of everything American and strong orientation towards the

Italian heritage; and (c) a refusal to think in ethnic

terms [4]. Tosi (1984) investigated bilingualism and

biculturalism of Italian immigrants in Great Britain. He

points to the conflict between the first generation,

which shows a highly conservative attitude, and the

second generation, which feels the pressure of the wider

bilingual, bicultural context. He also found Child 's

first two reactions, which he calls the 'apathy reaction'

and the 'in-group reaction'. The term 'apathy' is chosen

because this reaction 'develops when the individual feels

unable to cope with the conflicting values of two

opposing environments, and naturally slides towards the

acceptance of one - the one from which the stronger

pressure comes'. In cases of in-group reaction the

individual primarily identifies himself for herself with

the Italian community. The third type of reaction Tosi

distinguished, which is different from that of Child, is

the 'rebel reaction'. Only a few young people displayed

this reaction, refusing to choose between the old and the

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new culture, and trying to become really

bilingual/bicultural [1].

The relation between language and culture does not

seem to be as strong and fixed as is often assumed. It is

not true that speaking a certain language inevitably

leads to holding certain cultural values, as the famous

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis would claim. According to this

hypothesis the language an individual speaks determines

his world view. Sapir and Whorf considered language to be

the guide and the programme for the mental activities of

the individual, and the interpretation of the surrounding

world to be channeled via linguistic categories. If the

world view of the members of a linguistic community

constitutes their non-material culture, then this implies

a strong relation between language and culture. However,

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is much disputed, end it has

never been properly and extensively supported

empirically. In the field of bilingualism the question is

even more vexed. What is the world view of a bilingual?

By which of the two languages is it determined? Or has a

bilingual two world views between which he has to switch

depending on the language being used? Many questions can

be generated, but it is difficult or even impossible to

provide the definite answers [1].

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III. Effects of Bilingualism on Character Formation

Concerning personality development, a number of

researchers argue that bilingualism does not affect

personality. McLaughlin (1978), for example, mentions

that the emotional and psychological conflicts that the

bilingual children experience are not emerged from

learning two languages but by hostile attitudes of

society. He argues that it is not bilingualism that leads

to negative effects on personality but socioeconomic

considerations such as being in an inferior social group

and having poor teachers and schools. He also argues that

the difficulties that arise from conflicts of

biculturalism, having to adjust to two ways of life, may

produce conflicts of behaviour and the stigma of

inferiority [10].

However, Appel and Muysken (1987) argue that

bilingualism has negative effects on personality

development, but only when social conditions are

22

unfavourable. They mentioned that the psychosomatic

illnesses which the adults suffer from are not caused by

their bilingualism, but by the social and cultural

conflicts they experience as members of a discriminated-

against ethnic minority, whose language and cultural

values are not appreciated. They also argue that the same

goes for children with psychological and emotional

problems in school often manifested in apathy, aggressive

behaviour or isolation. When the minority's language and

culture are included in the curriculum, as in bilingual

programmes, pupils often show fewer social or emotional

problems. [1].

It is believed that the language you speak determines

the way you think, speak and express your thoughts. Many

experiments have been conducted in order to investigate

this aspect and prove the stated assumption. Scholars

have used qualitative methods to try to understand

language’s impact on personality. In 1998, Michele Koven,

a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, spent a year and a half carrying out

ethnographic research with bilingual Parisian adults

whose parents had emigrated from Portugal. All of her

subjects were fluent in both French and Portuguese, and

most maintained close ties to Portugal while living in

France; many planned on returning eventually, though most

23

also had monolingual French friends. Koven focused

specifically on how her subjects represented themselves

in narratives of personal experience, which she elicited

by asking them to recount various life events in both

languages. When Koven transcribed and analyzed the

content of their accounts, she saw that her subjects

emphasized different traits in their characters,

depending on which language they were speaking. For

instance, the women in the French stories were more

likely to stand up for themselves, whereas the female

characters in the Portuguese narratives tended to cede to

others’ demands. And their personalities changed, too.

One girl, Koven writes, sounded like “an angry, hip

suburbanite” when she spoke French, and a “frustrated,

but patient, well-mannered bank customer who does not

want attention drawn to the fact that she is an émigré”

when she spoke Portuguese. Whether that’s due to the

different context in which she learned French and

Portuguese, an inherent difference between the two

languages, or some combination, researchers have yet to

figure out [17].

It is said that speaking two languages is a negative

factor in personality or identity development. Bilinguals

are often expected to experience a conflict of values,

identities and world views because these are probably

24

strongly related to the two different languages.

Therefore they will become cultural hybrids.

Bilingualism, in this view, can cause emotional lability,

and even alienation or anomie [7].

A shift from bilingualism to monolingualism does not

prevent problems. Because of the assimilative forces of

the majority community many members from ethnic minority

groups adept the cultural values of that community, try

to learn and speak its language, while they are in the

process of losing their mother tongue. They will after

encounter discriminating and racist attitudes of the

majority population who nevertheless require them to

assimilate. It is not surprising that this may lead to

psychological or emotional problems. In stable bilingual

communities this type of problem does not have to occur

because a kind of bilingual or bicultural identity has

been established. All over the world, individuals use two

or more languages in their daily verbal interactions, but

this does not cause any psychological strain [1].

IV. Effects of Bilingualism on Educational Problems

It would seem only natural that children in bilingual

communities should have the opportunity to be educated in

two languages: the language of the home and the language

25

of ether groups in the community. But the reality is

different. In most bilingual communities the two (or

more) languages do not have equal status. Side by side

with majority languages, which have prestige and positive

social-economic connotations, there are the minority

languages, often associated with low social- economic

status and lack of educational achievement. They are more

or less stigmatized, and not considered as suitable

vehicles for communication in school or subject to be

taught. Therefore, all over the world examples can be

found of children who are confronted with a language in

school that they do not speak as well as native speakers

of their age [1].

In all these cases there is what is often called a

home-school language mismatch or switch, and this mismatch can

have several negative consequences, for example, poor

educational achievement. There is in fact a vicious

circle, because the minority language is seen as a main

cause for this failure, and its negative connotations are

reinforced once again. Many writers have argued that this

situation can only be changed if the minority language is

introduced into the school, and facilities for minority-

language teaching provided [1].

26

Concerning educational development, McLaughlin points

out that the command of second language is considered to

be a critical factor. He argues that poor performance is

predicted if bilingual child has not mastered the

language well. He writes: ‘As the child’s command

improves, so will academic performance in subjects taught

in that language’. He adds that many factors also should

be taken into account such as poor home environment, the

parent’s low socioeconomic status, negative attitudes of

the majority group, conflicts in culture, and so on [10].

Lambert (1977) writes: ‘In general, the researchers in

the early period expected to find all sorts of problems,

and they usually did: bilingual children, relative to

monolinguals, were behind in school, retarded in measured

intelligence, and socially drift. One trouble with most

of the early studies was that little care was taken to

check out the essentials before comparing monolingual and

bilingual subjects’ [8].

On the level of educational development, the majority

of studies performed after 1960 indicate that bilingual

education has positive outcomes in all areas: first and

second language skills, other subjects, and social and

emotional aspects. For example, Cummins points out that

the positive results of immersion education for bilingual

children speaking a high-status language in Canada and

27

the USA. He argues that bilingualism does not have

negative effects on language skills. Children should

receive instruction in their mother tongue so that the

acquisition of academic skills can be developed. And

children from majority groups will profit from

bilingualism if the second language is introduced at an

early stage because the first language is developed

outside school. However, these views have not yet found

empirical studies support [1].

Studies proving the harmful effects are often

overstated that bilingualism results in academic

retardation, inferior intelligence and lower IQ.

Bilingual children are seen as socially maladjusted as

compared with monolingual children. They tend to suffer

from linguistic retardation or mental confusion. More

recent studies, however, have attempted to debunk the

studies showing negative effects of bilingualism,

suggesting that the above studies are methodologically

flawed, and therefore yield invalid conclusions. J.F.

Hammers and M.H.A. Blanc (2000) in their book

“Bilinguality and Bilingualism” have managed to document

numerous studies showing that bilingualism results in a

greater ability in reconstructing perceptual situations

and a greater sensitivity to semantic relations between

words, produces superior results on verbal and non-verbal

28

intelligence, better performance in rule-discovery tasks,

and a greater degree of divergent thinking [14].

Traditionally, minority languages on the whole have

had only a marginal place in the education system, but

there are various exceptions. For example, in the

nineteenth century and in the first decades of the

twentieth century, many immigrant groups in the United

States organized mother-tongue education. In the Soviet

Union educational innovations were introduced immediate1y

after the Revolution to promote the use of various

national languages besides Russian in the schools. After

gaining independence the federal government of India

undermined the strong position of English in the Indian

education system. According to the new official policy,

children should receive primary education in their mother

tongue, which in most cases was not English or Hindi, the

newly chosen national language [1].

Cummins has believed that the minority child's

general cognitive development will be retarded if he or

she does not receive education in the mother tongue, and

if the mother tongue is not further developed in the

school. Cummins has developed the threshold hypothesis to

account for the results of studies on bilingual

education. According to this hypothesis, minority

29

children must attain a certain level of competence (the

threshold level) in their first language (and in their

second language as well) to avoid cognitive

disadvantages. When the children's first language has low

prestige, as is generally the case with minority

languages, language development is not stimulated outside

the school, so this is a risk for the education system

[5].

Minority language teaching is a requirement for a

healthy development of the child's personality and the

development of a positive self-image. If schools do not

provide any minority language teaching, then the school

becomes for minority children a place where neither their

language nor culture exists, possibly where they are not

even accepted a place where their social identity is

questioned and undermined. It is also stated that the

self-image of minority children will be harmed if, in the

school, literacy in the minority language is not

developed. When minority children only learn to read and

write in the majority language, then the minority

language must almost inevitably be considered a second-

rate means of communication [1].

According to Cummins's views, bilingualism does not

have detrimental effects on language skills, provided

30

that first-language proficiency is adequately supported.

Children from ethnic minority groups should receive

instruction in their mother tongue in order to develop

adequate cognitive language skills, before full weight is

given to second-language acquisition in school. The

skills developed in the mother tongue will also support

the acquisition of academic and literacy-related skills

in the second language. Only then will bilingualism be

beneficial for these children. Children from majority

groups, speaking a prestige language, will also profit

from bilingualism if the second language is introduced at

an early stage, because the first language, including the

aspects relevant for the acquisition of literacy, is

already developed outside school [5].

31

Conclusion

The aim of this research paper was to investigate

impact of bilingualism on different aspects of human life

including intelligence, development of cognitive

abilities and skills, group identification, character

formation, emotional state and educational problems.

After analyzing various scientific experiments,

researches and sources I have come to the conclusion that

there are contrary points of view regarding the influence

of bilingualism. Most of studies conducted in the first

part of the 20th century declared negative impact of

bilingualism, whereas the further investigations proved

the opposite.

32

Thus, most of the studies done before the 1960s

indicated that bilingualism had a negative effect on the

child’s intellectual, educational, and emotional

development. Recently, a number of researchers and

investigators found that bilingualism is a great help to

the child. They declared that the bilingualism has

positive effects that facilitate learning a new language,

and they reported that in school bilingual children are

more motivated and often ahead of other classmates,

especially in intellectual development [13].

Bilingualism is one of the experiences capable of

in uencing cognitive function and, to some extent,fl

cognitive structure. The effects, however, are not

simple; the language de cit and the control advantagefi

interact to create a complex picture of cognition that is

different for bilinguals and monolinguals, but not in a

way that can be simply de ned as better, worse, orfi

indifferent [2].

Some scientists support the notion that learning a

second language in childhood is associated with positive

cognitive gains. Bilingualism in children is positively

related to concept formation, classification, creativity

and analogical reasoning. In addition, bilingual children

demonstrate a refined awareness and control of the

33

objective properties of language, commonly referred to as

metalinguistic skills [2].

The development of bilingual skills certainly depends

on frequent and regular use of both languages by speakers

and persistent mastering of these skills. For example,

language fluency will not be well developed if a language

is spoken in a reduced number of domains and with a

limited number of people. However, a person can become a

fluent speaker of the second language by regular use of

the language for communication in different spheres. The

same rule applies to such skills as reading and writing.

The basic educational problems with regard to

bilingualism are the organization of schools in bilingual

areas and the best pedagogical methods for teaching two

languages.

Influence of bilinguism on character formation and

group identification cannot be treated as purely positive

or negative. The consequences depend on many various

factors including social conditions, home environment,

socioeconomic status, culture, attitudes of society and

many others. It remains to be explained why many

bilinguals feel a strong relation between language and

culture. This connection can be probably explained by the

34

fact that each language is associated with a community

and its cultural values and social life.

The topic of influence of bilingualism on people and

their life is many-sided and not completely investigated.

There are still a lot of questions and contradictions

that need to be studied properly, that is why more

scientists should be involved into researching this

problem in order to elucidate and clarify this

phenomenon.

List of references

1. Appel, R. & Muysken, P. Language contact andbilingualism. – London: Edward Arnold, 1987.

2. Bialystok, E. Acquisition of Literacy in BilingualChildren: A framework for Research. – 2002.

3. Bialystok, E. Children’s concept of word. Journal ofPsycholinguistic Research, 15 (1), 13-32. – 1986.

35

4. Child, LL. Italian or American? The second generationin conflict. New Haven, 1943.

5. Cummins, J. Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. – New York:Longman, 1991.

6. Diaz, R. M., & Padilla, K. The self regulatory speechof bilingual preschoolers. – 1985.

7. Diebold, A.R. Jr. The consequences of earlybilingualism in cognitive development and personalityformation. – New York,1968.

8. Lambert, W.E. The effects of bi1ingualism on theindividual: Cognitive and sociocultural consequences. –1977.

9. Latham, Andrew S. The advantages of Bilingualism. –1998.

10. McLaughlin, B. Second-language acquisition inchildhood. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978.

11. Peal, E., & Lambert,W. E. The relation ofbilingualism to intelligence. – 1962.

12. Robinson, D. W. The Cognitive, Academic andAttitudinal Benefits of Early Language Learning. – NewYork: Longman, 1992.

13. Internet Resource

http://www.westeastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ANT13-271-Majid-N.pdf

14. Internet resource

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/27/bilingual-education-problems-and-solutions.html

15. Internet resource

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201106/what-are-the-effects-bilingualism

16. Internet resource

https://dana.org/Cerebrum/2012/The_Cognitive_Benefits_of_Being_Bilingual/

17. Internet resource

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117485/multilinguals-have-multiple-personalities