Working memory in multilingual children: Is there a bilingual effect?

Abstract

This research investigates whether early childhood bilingualism affects working memory performance in 6- to 8-year-olds, followed over a longitudinal period of 3 years. The study tests the hypothesis that bilinguals might exhibit more efficient working memory abilities than monolinguals, potentially via the opportunity a bilingual environment provides to train cognitive control by combating interference and intrusions from the non-target language. A total of 44 bilingual and monolingual children, matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status, completed assessments of working memory (simple span and complex span tasks), fluid intelligence, and language (vocabulary and syntax). The data showed that the monolinguals performed significantly better on the language measures across the years, whereas no language group effect emerged on the working memory and fluid intelligence tasks after verbal abilities were considered. The study suggests that the need to manage several language systems in the bilingual mind has an impact on children's language skills while having little effects on the development of working memory.

Keywords:

• Bilingualism
• Working memory
• Cognitive control
• Fluid intelligence
• Language

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of Great Britain and the National Research Fund (FNR) of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The study is part of a longitudinal research project investigating links between working memory and learning in childhood. The author wishes to thank the schools, teachers, and children who participated in this study, as well as Prof. Susan Gathercole, Prof. Romain Martin, and Ms Christiane Bourg for helpful comments and advice on study and task design.

Notes

¹In the bilingual group 10 children had French- or German-speaking parents (one of the official languages of the Grand-Duchy). The data of these children were therefore analysed separately. Their performance did not differ significantly from the rest of the bilingual group.

²Tests translated and reproduced by permission. Copyright ^©Pearson Assessment. All rights reserved.