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Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

journals.sagepub.com

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Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#111

Post by ajmurmann »

tstrimple wrote: post #27
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #5

That seems to reflect my lived experience. Do bilingual people in general seem to be more intelligent? I don't think so. But, like many other things in life, the access of even a second language in my opinion gives you another tool to use as intellectual leverage to gain greater or richer understanding to many specific domains that you would otherwise require someone else to digest the information for you. That doesn…

I have to imagine there are parallel benefits as well. Just as a Java developer will become a better Java developer by learning programming languages with other paradigms, I have to believe knowing multiple spoken languages has tangible benefits outside of understanding the language itself.

One thing bilingualism has allowed me to do is differentiate better between the words and the things the words represent. This is mostly driven by words from different languages that translate to each other, not sharing all meanings of words. Of course I cannot think of an example right now that usefully illustrates how this leads to insights. It has explicitly come up in some philosophical discussions with friends and family who were going down a path intellectually that was driven more by the language than what it represents.

IMO, your programming language comparison is somewhat similar in that even knowing multiple, similar languages allows you to differentiate between the syntax and the concepts expressed by the syntax. E.g. different ways of constructing classes and objects in different languages will make you understand the core of OOP better, similarly to different ways to loop, etc.

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#112

Post by jacooper »

pb7 wrote: post #59
AdrenalinMd wrote: post #50

As someone fluent in four languages*, I agree. I would even argue that the opposite of an advantage is true. Consider this: it adds unnecessary cognitive load. When trying to think of a word, it comes to you in four different languages, which isn't helpful! I speak four languages out of necessity, not by choice. When you can focus on fewer languages, your proficiency in them improves. Although I can speak four langua…

I am also originally from Moldova and speak the same 4 languages. If I had to guess, this is fairly common in Moldova -- at least in private schools. I would say there is a very mild advantage, even recognizing vaguely similar words in other languages when traveling. I find Russian to be very useful in a way that French and Romanian aren't. English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish are the most "useful" as they…

I think Spanish should be on that list tooz since its one of the core languages out there right?

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#113

Post by semireg »

jvanderbot wrote: post #77
eru wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say it like it's a bad thing. This is an awesome way to provide both an extra language when kids don't have much else to do and fit it easy to pick them up, _and_ it saves on costs? What could be better?

I'm only saying that the primary motivation for Spanish immersion, good or bad, is probably cheaper child care costs, for the center, not the parent. Our kids are in one. Or were, until we moved.

As a parent of a 5 year old entering K this coming fall, we were set on the Spanish immersion program at our public school. Less expensive childcare costs never factored into the decision, and learning of cost savings is a bit of a shock to me. I never considered that aspect to private programs.

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#114

Post by viraptor »

dilawar wrote: post #106

Remind me of an article where three anthropologists were debating what does mean to be civilized. "Knowing one language makes us human, knowing more than one language make us civilised." is the only thing I now remember from that reading. Does knowing more than one languages make you more reflective/liberal?

> Does knowing more than one languages make you more reflective/liberal?

I believe some society traits leak through the language and you see a little bit more context when you learn a new language. (Especially with idioms, but separate words too) The in-your-face examples I remember now are the many polite ways to say "no" without saying "no" in Japanese, and Australian tribes using absolute directions (NESW) instead of relative. But there are more subtle ones too and I think they give you a better chance to be more open.

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#115

Post by fnord77 »

garbage study!

multilingualism was self-reported so they don't differentiate between someone who slept through 2 years of HS spanish and someone who grew up speaking both English and Chinese

The study was also done in a single geographical location. terrible

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#116

Post by pb7 »

jacooper wrote: post #112
pb7 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also originally from Moldova and speak the same 4 languages. If I had to guess, this is fairly common in Moldova -- at least in private schools. I would say there is a very mild advantage, even recognizing vaguely similar words in other languages when traveling. I find Russian to be very useful in a way that French and Romanian aren't. English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish are the most "useful" as they…

I think Spanish should be on that list tooz since its one of the core languages out there right?

I mentioned it at the end but yeah, probably on par with the others. It "unlocks" all of Latin America minus Brazil and few Dutch/French territories, but even Brazilians speak varying amount of Spanish.

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#117

Post by x62Bh7948f »

Here in Japan I often hear stories about kids raised bilingual being put into special needs classes because some schools consider it a cognitive impairment. Since my family lives abroad, I would like to teach my kids english at home and only use it in private settings, but feels weird having to hide something like that (also, half kids are sort of "expected" to speak english anyway).

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#118

Post by lisper »

seizethecheese wrote: post #97
lisper wrote: post #94

This study seems to focus on acquired languages and ignores mulitple languages learned in childhood. As someone who grew up speaking three languages (German, Hebrew and English) I feel as if this has expanded my ability to conceptualize and form abstractions because I know "what it is like" to think natively in languages with different vocabularies and syntactic structures. That comes naturally with no effort when yo…

I think the commenters here are focusing on acquired languages, but does the study? I don’t think so, since the bilingual cohort was 2x as likely to be low socioeconomic status.

Good point. I guess I assumed that the second language was acquired later in life because otherwise it's not really "acquiring a second language", it's "acquiring multiple languages at the same time."

In looking back over this, I stumbled over this study which seems to directly contradict the one in the original link:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797612443836

"This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young immigrant children challenged by poverty..."

which implies that there is a "cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism".

So maybe the original study is just bogus. Or maybe this one is. Who knows? Sociology doesn't have a stellar reputation for generating reproducible results.

Re: Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study

#120

Post by wenc »

AdrenalinMd wrote: post #50

As someone fluent in four languages*, I agree. I would even argue that the opposite of an advantage is true. Consider this: it adds unnecessary cognitive load. When trying to think of a word, it comes to you in four different languages, which isn't helpful! I speak four languages out of necessity, not by choice. When you can focus on fewer languages, your proficiency in them improves. Although I can speak four langua…

I speak 7 (4 acquired as a child, 1 in school, and 2 as an adult) and I find I'm able to understand understand cultural nuances better, which helps me to bridge cultural gaps and have multi-perspectival views on most things. (this is quite apart from the unproven Sapir-Whorf hypotheses stuff about language influencing thoughts -- it's not like that at all). Having multiple languages simply gives me affinity for multiple cultures and helps me pay attention to certain details that are easily missed by people not of that culture.

Being able to live between cultures isn't necessarily something that is prized by many, but having been an outsider in every culture I've ever lived in, this ability has helped me become a chameleon and blend into new cultures (corporate cultures, community cultures etc.) in order to feel a sense of belonging.

So the benefits for me are purely sociological -- I agree that being multilingual confers little advantage in terms of performing executive tasks (which is what the linked article was testing).

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