Attentional abilities of children enrolled in immersion education in French-speaking Belgium

ABSTRACT

There is currently much controversy surrounding the cognitive advantages that are often associated with bilingualism, especially regarding the so-called executive control advantage. Recently, it has been suggested that bilingualism emerging from immersion education may not lead to an advantage in executive control, but rather to an improvement specifically at the level of attentional abilities. In order to test this hypothesis, the current large sample study involving over 500 participants investigated whether foreign-language immersion education can be associated with an advantage in attentional functions. We recruited 12-year-old children and 18-year-old adolescents enrolled in immersion education in French-speaking Belgium for at least 6 years. They were compared to non-immersed children and adolescents on tasks assessing auditory sustained attention, auditory and visual selective attention and divided attention. Several control variables such as nonverbal intelligence, socioeconomic status and other potentially relevant background variables were also considered. The results indicate no measurable difference between the immersed and the non-immersed participants, for none of the examined attentional abilities. These findings are discussed in the light of the cognitive implications of becoming bilingual through a formal education experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• foreign-language acquisition
• immersion education
• attention

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Concerted Research Action grant (ARC 14/19-061) from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Université de Namur (UNamur), awarded to Philippe Hiligsmann (spokesman; UCLouvain), Benoît Galand (UCLouvain), Laurence Mettewie (UNamur), Fanny Meunier (UCLouvain), Arnaud Szmalec (UCLouvain) and Kristel Van Goethem (UCLouvain). We thank Amélie Bulon, Audrey De Smet, Isa Hendrikx and Luk Van Mensel for their assistance in the data collection. The authors would like to thank the schools for their collaboration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Concerted Research Action grant [ARC 14/19-061] from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Université de Namur (UNamur), awarded to Philippe Hiligsmann (spokesman; UCLouvain), Benoît Galand (UCLouvain), Laurence Mettewie (UNamur), Fanny Meunier (UCLouvain), Arnaud Szmalec (UCLouvain) and Kristel Van Goethem (UCLouvain)

Notes on contributors

Morgane Simonis

Morgane Simonis is a neuropsychologist who obtained a PhD in the domain of the cognitive implications of immersion education.

Benoit Galand

Benoit Galand is a professor in Educational Sciences at UCLouvain.

Philippe Hiligsmann

Philippe Hiligsmann is a professor in Language and Linguistics at UCLouvain.

Arnaud Szmalec

Arnaud Szmalec is a professor in Psychology of Language at UCLouvain and UGent.