Positive Effects Of Bilingualism Essay

Bilingualism proves to be beneficial to an individual as it can help improve their cognitive skills. Studies have shown that bilingualism has a positive effect on one’s ability to problem-solve and think critically and creatively (“Bilingual Children”, 2012; Sims & Ellis, 2015). This is effectively demonstrated in a study conducted by Sardinian educational psychologist Dr. Fraser Lauchlan in 2012. His study revealed that bilingual children outperform monolingual children in problem-solving skills and creative thinking. In his study, researchers set lingual, arithmetical, and physical tasks for 121 children in Glasgow, Scotland and Sardinia, Italy. The researchers then asked the children to complete certain tasks such as reproducing patterns of coloured blocks, orally repeating a series of numbers, giving clear definitions of words, and

Lauchlan’s study discovered that bilingualism “‘can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic, problem solving and enabling children to think creatively’” (“Bilingual Children”, 2012). People who are bilingual also tend to have better attention skills than their monolingual counterparts, which means that they get distracted less easily. This is evident when comparing the performance of bilinguals with the performance of monolinguals on the Stroop Task, “a classic experiment used to assess one’s ability to ignore distractions”. On a Stroop Task, colour words are presented visually in a non-matching colour. For example, the word “blue” would be written in purple font. Participants are asked to name the colour of the font rather than the word itself. This requires them to ignore the actual words they see and, instead, focus on the font colour. Bilinguals often complete the Stroop Task faster than monolinguals do, which suggests that bilinguals “are less susceptible to distraction” than