Bilingualism, executive function, and beyond: questions and insights

ABSTRACT

The investigation into bilingualism has shown robustness since the Millennium, strongly associated with the integration of cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, theoretical linguistics, second language acquisition and bilingual education. In particular, the rise of bilingualism research from a perspective of executive functions in the past decade has become an integral part in observing the interplay between bilingualism and cognition. Researchers wishing to look at the effects of bilingualism on executive functions tend to describe various forms of being bilingual, identify idiosyncrasies of language processing in bilingualism and investigate different facets of executive function. In this respect, Sekerina et al.’s edited volume Bilingualism, Executive Function, and Beyond: Questions and Insights appears to be a timely and popular contribution pertaining to bilingual education and bilingualism, because it elucidates for readers a valuable collection of scholarly works which deals with both theoretical and practical issues central to bilinguals’ performance on executive functioning. Such an edited volume has offered bilingualism researchers a robust platform to share minds, and would appeal to a broad spectrum of audience.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• executive functions
• bilinguals’ performance
• cognition
• bilingual education

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and constructive suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban)/Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education and National MTCSOL Education Steering Committee under Grant [HGJ201706]; Liaoning Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science under Grant [L19AYY004]; The Educational Department of Liaoning Province under Grant [WJ2019012]; Liaoning Office for Education Sciences Planning under Grant [JG18DB007]; Liaoning Provincial Federation Social Science Circles under Grant [2019lslktyb-052]; and Postgraduate Office of Bohai University under Grant [02200104441-44 and yjsjg1821].