Final Report Summary - PREDICTING FLL (Bilingualism, Foreign Language Learning and Executive Control)
The project “Predicting foreign language learning” has two interrelated objectives. The first objective was to investigate how lifelong bilingualism impacts inhibitory control and mental shifting, and the second objective was to explore whether the cognitive skills of inhibitory control and mental shifting have predictive value in understanding individual differences in instructed foreign language outcomes.
During the second two years of the project I have made significant progress towards meeting both these objectives. Our research team has continued research conducted during the first two years, and has completed another large scale study comparing monolingual speakers of English and several bilingual populations – Hebrew-English, Spanish-English and Mandarin-English. The comparison of several bilingual groups goes beyond the initial goals of the project, and was possible because of a new collaboration established between the University of Haifa and the University of California at San Diego.
Executive functions are a set of general purpose control mechanisms that regulate cognition and action. The construct of executive function includes three components: updating - the ability to constantly monitor and refresh the content of working memory, inhibitory control – overriding dominant responses and suppressing interference from distracters and shifting – flexibly switching between cognitive sets or tasks. Recent research suggests that bilinguals might enjoy enhanced executive function by virtue of utilizing these domain general mechanisms for managing competition between their two languages.
The study completed during the second phase of the project compared monolingual English speakers with Spanish-English and Mandarin-English bilinguals, residing in the US, as well as with Hebrew-English bilinguals residing in Israel. All participants completed tasks measuring flexibility in shifting between sets in the non-verbal domain as well as a language switching paradigm. The study showed both similarities and differences across the linguistic and non-linguistic domains, across the participant groups. This pattern of results suggests that although bilingual language control might rely to some degree on domain general executive functions, there are also separable mechanisms involved.
In addition, during the second half of the project the investigation of the impact of bilingualism on cognitive function was expanded in two important directions. First, a developmental study investigating the executive function abilities of pre-school and elementary school aged bilingual and monolingual children revealed that bilingual advantages were not ubiquitous. Especially in the older group, we found that bilingual advantages in EF were limited to bilingual children who were balanced in their command of the two languages they speak. A final study in this line of research investigated the concomitant influences of bilingualism and ADHD on executive function in young adults. This study revealed that the burden of navigating the competition arising from having two language systems might negatively impact the EF function of bilingual individuals who also suffer from ADHD.
Taken in concert with the previous two studies, described in the interim progress report, these results show that lifelong bilingualism can have positive influences on general cognitive abilities such as inhibition and cognitive flexibility. At the same time, the impact is not uniform across all bilingual groups, and might be sensitive to the specifics of the bilingual experience of different individuals. Further, there are important distinction between language control in bilinguals and cognitive control more generally. This more detailed understanding can impact language policy and planning from the individual to the national level, and provides evidence for the manner in which life experiences can shape cognitive functions.
The second objective of this project is to examine, in light of the link described above between bilingualism and executive function, whether individual differences in executive function might contribute to the wide variability in foreign language acquisition Learning a second language can benefit greatly from linguistic knowledge acquired in the first language, but achieving high levels of L2 proficiency necessitates the ability to identify discrepancies between the two linguistic systems and to overcome L1 interference in such cases. Moreover, proficient navigation of two language systems requires skill in activating and inhibiting the relevant language in a variety of settings.
To better understand the possible involvement of executive functions in foreign language learning, we conducted two studies on students at the University of Haifa – native Hebrew speakers who are L2 learners of English, and more recently, native Arabic speakers who are L2 learners of Hebrew. In both studies we examined individual differences in learners' sensitivity to cross language interference from the L1 when processing the L2. Results from the study of Arabic speakers processing Hebrew as an L2 showed significant cross-language interference even in advanced highly proficiency learners. Further, individual differences in sensitivity to interference in the lexical domain were found to be related to domain general executive function abilities, whereas sensitivity to interference in the grammatical domain is linked more tightly to proficiency in the target language. These results expand current models of the cognitive underpinnings leading to successful foreign language learning and may ultimately shape the pedagogy of foreign language instruction.
During the second two years of the project I have made significant progress towards meeting both these objectives. Our research team has continued research conducted during the first two years, and has completed another large scale study comparing monolingual speakers of English and several bilingual populations – Hebrew-English, Spanish-English and Mandarin-English. The comparison of several bilingual groups goes beyond the initial goals of the project, and was possible because of a new collaboration established between the University of Haifa and the University of California at San Diego.
Executive functions are a set of general purpose control mechanisms that regulate cognition and action. The construct of executive function includes three components: updating - the ability to constantly monitor and refresh the content of working memory, inhibitory control – overriding dominant responses and suppressing interference from distracters and shifting – flexibly switching between cognitive sets or tasks. Recent research suggests that bilinguals might enjoy enhanced executive function by virtue of utilizing these domain general mechanisms for managing competition between their two languages.
The study completed during the second phase of the project compared monolingual English speakers with Spanish-English and Mandarin-English bilinguals, residing in the US, as well as with Hebrew-English bilinguals residing in Israel. All participants completed tasks measuring flexibility in shifting between sets in the non-verbal domain as well as a language switching paradigm. The study showed both similarities and differences across the linguistic and non-linguistic domains, across the participant groups. This pattern of results suggests that although bilingual language control might rely to some degree on domain general executive functions, there are also separable mechanisms involved.
In addition, during the second half of the project the investigation of the impact of bilingualism on cognitive function was expanded in two important directions. First, a developmental study investigating the executive function abilities of pre-school and elementary school aged bilingual and monolingual children revealed that bilingual advantages were not ubiquitous. Especially in the older group, we found that bilingual advantages in EF were limited to bilingual children who were balanced in their command of the two languages they speak. A final study in this line of research investigated the concomitant influences of bilingualism and ADHD on executive function in young adults. This study revealed that the burden of navigating the competition arising from having two language systems might negatively impact the EF function of bilingual individuals who also suffer from ADHD.
Taken in concert with the previous two studies, described in the interim progress report, these results show that lifelong bilingualism can have positive influences on general cognitive abilities such as inhibition and cognitive flexibility. At the same time, the impact is not uniform across all bilingual groups, and might be sensitive to the specifics of the bilingual experience of different individuals. Further, there are important distinction between language control in bilinguals and cognitive control more generally. This more detailed understanding can impact language policy and planning from the individual to the national level, and provides evidence for the manner in which life experiences can shape cognitive functions.
The second objective of this project is to examine, in light of the link described above between bilingualism and executive function, whether individual differences in executive function might contribute to the wide variability in foreign language acquisition Learning a second language can benefit greatly from linguistic knowledge acquired in the first language, but achieving high levels of L2 proficiency necessitates the ability to identify discrepancies between the two linguistic systems and to overcome L1 interference in such cases. Moreover, proficient navigation of two language systems requires skill in activating and inhibiting the relevant language in a variety of settings.
To better understand the possible involvement of executive functions in foreign language learning, we conducted two studies on students at the University of Haifa – native Hebrew speakers who are L2 learners of English, and more recently, native Arabic speakers who are L2 learners of Hebrew. In both studies we examined individual differences in learners' sensitivity to cross language interference from the L1 when processing the L2. Results from the study of Arabic speakers processing Hebrew as an L2 showed significant cross-language interference even in advanced highly proficiency learners. Further, individual differences in sensitivity to interference in the lexical domain were found to be related to domain general executive function abilities, whereas sensitivity to interference in the grammatical domain is linked more tightly to proficiency in the target language. These results expand current models of the cognitive underpinnings leading to successful foreign language learning and may ultimately shape the pedagogy of foreign language instruction.