New approaches to research into bilingualism show there may be some truth in the idea of a "bilingual advantage". But studies are still inconclusive.If you grew up speaking more than one language, it's a fantastic advantage — alone for the fact that it means you can potentially communicate with many more people in the world. And in families with a migration background, it can keep communication between the generations alive.

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But some linguists think bilingualism offers other advantages as well: an advantage in "executive function".

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Executive function, or "cognitive control", describes mental processes that affect our ability to get things done — to prioritize tasks, set goals, filter distractions, solve problems and control impulses.

One of the most important aspects of executive function is the ability to inhibit behavior: to inhibit distractions and focus instead, or inhibit inappropriate impulses — or self-control.

The theory is that people who speak two or more languages fluently and on a regular basis have stronger cognitive inhibition skills because they are constantly forced to inhibit one language over another, depending on the situation at hand.

In 2012, a review of research into bilingualism found evidence of what is now known as a bilingual advantage. But the findings are disputed.

Inconsistencies in research on bilingualism

The idea of bilingualism's superiority over monolingualism is common.

But many bilingualism researchers say the studies that made up the 2012 review failed to tell the whole story.

They say that although there is a clear, indisputable social advantage to bilingualism, its impact on a person's cognition ability is less clear.

Much of the early research suffered from publication bias and flawed methodologies, the researchers say.

Subsequent reviews of the research in 2014 and 2018 took unpublished work into account. They found that studies that reinforced the idea of the bilingual advantage in executive functioning were published more frequently than similar studies that found no evidence for the phenomenon.

Along with this bias, researchers have pointed out that much of the work surrounding the question of the bilingual advantage renders major differences in bilingual people irrelevant — for example, how frequently they use their respective languages and in which situations, or at which levels of proficiency.

A new way to measure executive function: Attention

In October 2023, researchers published the results of a study that looked at the link between executive function and bilingualism using a new methodology. The piece was published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Rather than trying to measure inhibition, they measured an opposite function: a person's ability to pay attention.

Canadian psychologist Ellen Bialystok explained the advantages to studying attention instead of inhibition.

Bialystock, who was not involved in the study above, told DW that studying one-year-old infants in bilingual environments can produce better results: "Since these are preverbal infants, attention [in] a more complex linguistic environment shapes attentional control broadly."

A new experiment using color

In the new study, researchers gathered one group of monolingual people and one group of bilingual people and attempted to compare how the two groups perceived and responded to a colored object. They had to respond quickly and accurately under distracted circumstances.

The researchers found that although the two groups seemed equally good at perceiving relevant information, the bilingual group was better at ignoring irrelevant information.

"One explanation for this is that bilinguals are constantly switching between two languages and need to shift their attention away from the language not in use," said Grace deMeurisse, one of the researchers from the University of Florida.

The study came with some caveats: the sample size was relatively small — 24 bilinguals and 33 monolinguals — and didn't address some of the current debates in bilingualism research, such as whether "monolingual" and "bilingual" can even be defined as categorically separate entities.

Aside from such limitations, Bialystok, a pioneer in the field of bilingualism's impact on the brain, said the study was "an interesting piece of research that opens new avenues for pursuing these difficult questions."

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 24, 2023 10:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).