A Bilingual Advantage? An Appeal for a Change in Perspective and Recommendations for Future Research
by
Gregory J. Poarch 1,*
and Andrea Krott 2
Gregory J. Poarch 1,* and Andrea Krott 2
1
English Department, University of Münster, 48143 Münster, Germany
2
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Behav. Sci. 2019, 9(9), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9090095
Received: 28 June 2019 / Revised: 8 August 2019 / Accepted: 29 August 2019 / Published: 4 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Variation and the Bilingual Advantage—Factors that Modulate the Effect of Bilingualism on Cognitive Control)
The debate on possible cognitive advantages bilinguals have over monolinguals continues to occupy the research community. There is an ever-growing research body focusing on adjudicating whether there is, in fact, an effect of using two or more languages regularly on cognition. In this paper, we briefly review some of the more pertinent literature that has attempted to identify attenuating, modulating, and confounding factors in research comparing monolingual and bilingual populations, and we highlight issues that should be taken into account in future research to move forward as a research community. At the same time, we argue for a change in perspective concerning what is deemed an advantage and what is not and argue for more ecologically valid research that investigates real-life advantages.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Poarch, G.J.; Krott, A. A Bilingual Advantage? An Appeal for a Change in Perspective and Recommendations for Future Research. Behav. Sci. 2019, 9, 95.
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