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Frequent L2 language use enhances executive control in bilinguals*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

ESTHER DE LEEUW  and
CARI ANNE BOGULSKI
ESTHER DE LEEUW*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
CARI ANNE BOGULSKI
Affiliation:
University of Arkansas
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Esther de Leeuw, Department of Linguistics, SLLF, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom. e.deleeuw@qmul.ac.uk
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Abstract

Seminal research which indicates that bilingualism leads to enhanced executive control (Bialystok, Craik, Green & Gollan, 2009; Bialystok, Craik & Luk, 2012) has recently been challenged (de Bruin, Treccani & Della Sala, 2014; Hilchey & Klein, 2011; Paap & Greenberg, 2013). We suggest that this discrepancy in findings is attributable to differences between bilinguals. Although the present results showed no significant differences in executive control between the monolinguals and bilinguals, those bilinguals who used their L2 more frequently in their daily lives were significantly more likely to evidence enhanced executive control over those who rarely used their L2.

Keywords

bilingualismmonolingualismexecutive controlL2 pronunciation proficiencylanguage useAoA
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , November 2016 , pp. 907 - 913
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

We dedicate this research to our parents, who have supported us throughout our lives in so many ways.

In loving memory of Adrianus Dionys de Leeuw and Linda Joan Granbois.

We are grateful to Ellen Bialystok and Karen Emmorey for their feedback on earlier stages of this research; Linnaea Stockall for the design of the Flanker task; Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga for data collection; and Nina Mainz for the listener experiment. Many of the recordings were conducted at the Laboratorio de Fonética at the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales at the University of Madrid, and we thank Juana Gil Fernández for her assistance here. This research was partly funded by the British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and we are grateful for this financial support, as well as to the comments made by three anonymous reviewers.

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