{"id":1275,"date":"2021-06-24T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T00:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/the-advantages-of-bilingualism\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T00:15:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T00:15:41","slug":"the-advantages-of-bilingualism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/the-advantages-of-bilingualism\/","title":{"raw":"6.1 The Advantages of Bilingualism","rendered":"6.1 The Advantages of Bilingualism"},"content":{"raw":"[pb_glossary id=\"1454\"]Bilingualism[\/pb_glossary] doesn\u2019t appear to have any linguistic disadvantages (Snow, 1993). There have be cases of initial delay in vocabulary acquisition in one language but this soon passes. [pb_glossary id=\"1446\"]Bilinguals[\/pb_glossary] tend to have a slight deficit in working memory tasks in L2. However, they have greater metalinguistic awareness and verbal fluency (Ben-Zeev, 1977; Bialystock, 2001; Cook, 1997). For example, children in Canadian French immersion programs tended to score highly on creativity tests than monolinguals (Lambert, Tucker & d\u2019Anglejan, 1973).\r\n\r\nBeing a bilingual gives you the awareness that words are arbitrary symbols for things. There are some researchers who have found interference between [pb_glossary id=\"1447\"]L1[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"1448\"]L2[\/pb_glossary] (Harley & Wang, 1997). However, there is evidence to suggest that bilingualism provides a general cognitive advantage. There is even some data that indicates that bilingualism protects individuals from the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease by slowing down cognitive aging (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012).","rendered":"

Bilingualism<\/a> doesn\u2019t appear to have any linguistic disadvantages (Snow, 1993). There have be cases of initial delay in vocabulary acquisition in one language but this soon passes. Bilinguals<\/a> tend to have a slight deficit in working memory tasks in L2. However, they have greater metalinguistic awareness and verbal fluency (Ben-Zeev, 1977; Bialystock, 2001; Cook, 1997). For example, children in Canadian French immersion programs tended to score highly on creativity tests than monolinguals (Lambert, Tucker & d\u2019Anglejan, 1973).<\/p>\n

Being a bilingual gives you the awareness that words are arbitrary symbols for things. There are some researchers who have found interference between L1<\/a> and L2<\/a> (Harley & Wang, 1997). However, there is evidence to suggest that bilingualism provides a general cognitive advantage. There is even some data that indicates that bilingualism protects individuals from the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease by slowing down cognitive aging (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012).<\/p>\n

definition<\/span>