Cognitive Advantages in Children Enrolled in Early Immersive Bilingual Education in Dutch Primary Schools

Abstract

A bilingual upbringing has been generally considered to positively influence children in various ways. Several studies found that individuals who were raised bilingually experienced advantages in cognitive functioning. The current study set out to explore whether the advantages found in fully bilingual children could be generalised to children enrolled in immersive bilingual education (i.e. Dutch speaking children immersed in Dutch-English bilingual education). The experiment investigated possible cognitive advantages in verbal and non-verbal working memory, non-verbal switching, selective attention, and attentional inhibition. It was expected that the children in the bilingual group would outperform the children in the monolingual group on all cognitive tests. No significant effects were found that indicated overall cognitive advantages in the bilingual group over the monolingual group. However, slightly higher scores were visible on several tasks for the bilingual group. Future research will have to indicate whether an increase in sample size and a longer exposure to the second language result in indisputable differences.