Language and cognition in developing bilinguals : examing working memory and executive control

• Main Author: McVeigh, Claire
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2013
• Subjects: 404.2083
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.602587

The overall research aim was to examine the cognitive development of Irish and English speaking developing bilingual children. Caveats from previous research indicated the importance of considering language factors such as acquisition, proficiency and use, which informed a further research aim of conducting a comprehensive examination of language background information for immersion educated children, through multiple sources. Working memory and executive control were of particular research interest as prior international " research with developing bilingual children produced mixed findings for both working memory and executive control, with a link between these processes suggested to be impacted on by the bilingual experience (Bialystok, 2009), The first study examined whether any evidence supported an examination of working memory in the developing bilinguals, given Bialystok's (2009) suggestion of equivalent working memory performance in bilingual and monolingual children and adults. As findings indicated differences in the structure and development of working memory as compared with data from Alloway, Gathercole and Pickering (2006), further investigation into language factors impacting on developing bilinguals' language experience, were conducted to provide a context within which to consider findings. Language information was used to consider subsequent findings of research examining short term memory, working memory, receptive vocabulary, non-verbal lQ and executive control in developing bilingual and monolingual children. Findings overall indicated largely equivalent cognitive and linguistic performance of bilingual and monolingual children which must be considered in light of developing bilinguals' early acquisition and additive bilingualism. Notable cognitive differences between developing bilingual and monolingual children were found and replicated on a mazes memory task of visuospatial working memory. Research implications were considered throughout.