Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:42:51.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commentary on “Moving toward a neuroplasticity view of bilingualism”: The early years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2014

Fred Genesee
Fred Genesee*
Affiliation:
McGill University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Baum and Titone's Keynote Article is a welcome addition to the ongoing and flourishing study of the neurocognitive effects of bilingualism. By focusing their review on executive control in bilinguals from the perspectives of both aging and neuroplasticity in general they have broadened our thinking in useful ways. Because my own research has focused on the early stages of aging and bilingualism in preschool and school-age children, I have chosen to comment on their review with reference to these kinds of learners. I will also focus on the language acquisition part of this discussion because at the heart of the issue is how and to what extent acquisition of more than one language affects cognitive development. My comments reinforce what I believe are important observations in their review and simultaneously seek to extend their call to expand our frames of reference in research on bilinguals even further.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , September 2014 , pp. 905 - 909
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2009). Age of onset and nativelikeness in a second language: Listener perception versus linguistic scrutiny. Language Learning, 59, 249–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Barac, R. (2012). Emerging bilingualism: Dissociating advantages for metalinguistic awareness and executive control. Cognition, 122, 67–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, V. J. (1992). Evidence for multicompetence. Language Learning, 42, 557–591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, J. (1976). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive growth: A synthesis of research findings and explanatory hypotheses. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 9, 1–43.Google Scholar
Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F., & Gauthier, K. (2013). Language abilities of internationally adopted children from China during the early school years: Evidence of early age effects? Applied Psycholinguistics, 34, 541–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genesee, F. (2004). What do we know about bilingual education for majority language students? In Bhatia, T. K. & Ritchie, W. (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism and multiculturalism (pp. 547–576). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Genesee, F. (2009). Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities. Journal of Applied Research on Learning, 2, 1–21.Google Scholar
Genesee, F., & Lindholm-Leary, K. (2012). The education of English language learners. In Harris, K., Graham, S., & Urdan, T. (Eds.), APA educational psychology handbook (pp. 499–526). Washington, DC: APA Books.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1992). Another view of bilingualism. Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals, 83, 51–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iluz-Cohen, P., & Armon-Lotem, S. (2013). Language proficiency and executive control in bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 884–899, doi:10.1017/S1366728912000788CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, W. E. (1977). The effects of bilingualism on the individual: Cognitive and sociocultural consequences. In Hornby, P. (Ed.), Bilingualism: Psychological, social, and educational implications (pp. 15–28). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mercier, J., Pivneva, I., & Titone, D. (2013). Individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word processing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. doi:10.1017/S1366728913000084Google Scholar
Paradis, J., Genesee, F., & Crago, M. (2011). Dual language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
US Department of Education (2008). National assessment of educational progress in reading and mathematics, 2007. Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar