Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:52:44.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Describing bilinguals: A systematic review of labels and descriptions used in the literature between 2005–2015

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2017

SARAH SURRAIN Open the ORCID record for SARAH SURRAIN [Opens in a new window]  and
GIGI LUK
SARAH SURRAIN
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
GIGI LUK*
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
*
Address for correspondence: Gigi Luk, Ph. D., Harvard Graduate School of Education, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent years have seen a surge in research comparing bilinguals to monolinguals, yet synthesizing this literature is complicated by the diversity of language and social backgrounds behind these dichotomous labels. The current study examines the labels and descriptions reported in 186 studies comparing bilinguals and monolinguals published between 2005–2015 in order to understand how bilingualism has been operationalized and to describe the degree to which different facets of bilingual experience are reported. Proficiency and usage were the most frequently reported features (77% and 79%), followed by language history (67%) and the language of schooling (60%). However, less than half of the studies measured proficiency objectively or reported proportional usage, and even less – 30% – described the sociolinguistic context from which the sample was drawn. Given the increase in language contact due to globalization, more transparent and comprehensive reporting of participant characteristics is critical to building our understanding of how bilingualism affects experience.

Keywords

bilingualismmultilingualismsystematic reviewheterogeneitycontextual factors
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 401 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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.)

Footnotes

We acknowledge Sarah Howard, Carolynn Ianello, Analiese Reigstad and Valerie Woxholdt for their assistance in coding the database for this project. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions to an earlier version of the manuscript.

Supplementary material can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000682

References

Alvarado, N., & Jameson, K. A. (2011). Shared knowledge about emotion among Vietnamese and English bilingual and monolingual speakers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42 (6), 963–982. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110381125Google Scholar
Bak, T. H. (2016). Cooking pasta in La Paz: Bilingualism, bias and the replication crisis. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.16002.bakGoogle Scholar
Baker, W., & Trofimovich, P. (2005). Interaction of native- and second-language vowel system(s) in early and late bilinguals. Language and Speech, 48 (1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309050480010101Google Scholar
Basnight-Brown, D. M., Chen, L., Hua, S., Kostić, A., & Feldman, L. B. (2007). Monolingual and bilingual recognition of regular and irregular English verbs: Sensitivity to form similarity varies with first language experience. Journal of Memory and Language, 57 (1), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.03.001Google Scholar
Bedore, L. M., Fiestas, C. E., Peña, E. D., & Nagy, V. J. (2006). Cross-language comparisons of maze use in Spanish and English in functionally monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9 (3), 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728906002604Google Scholar
Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Griffin, Z. M., & Hixon, J. G. (2016). Effects of age of English exposure, current input/output, and grade on bilingual language performance. Journal of Child Language, 43 (3), 687–706.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Barac, R., Blaye, A., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2010). Word mapping and executive functioning in young monolingual and bilingual children. Journal of Cognition and Development, 11 (4), 485–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2010.516420Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K. F., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13 (4), 525–531. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990423Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Luk, G. (2012). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual adults. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 397–401.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D. (2016). Dominance in bilingualism: Foundations of measurement, with insights from the study of handedness. In Treffers-Daller, J. & Silva-Corvalán, C. (Eds.), Language dominance in bilinguals: Issues of measurement and operationalization. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D., & Vanhove, J. (2016). Age of Second-Language Acquisition: Critical Periods and Social Concerns. In Nicoladis, E. & (Linguist) Montanari, S. (Eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan: factors moderating language proficiency (pp. 163–181). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, L. (1935). Language. London: G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32 (7), 513–531. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.32.7.513Google Scholar
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2009). Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: Infants’ language experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic. Developmental Science, 12 (5), 815–823. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00902.xGoogle Scholar
Carroll, S. E. (2017). Exposure and input in bilingual development. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20 (1), 3–16.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., Costa-Faidella, J., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don't. Cognition, 113 (2), 135–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.001Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (1987). Bilingualism, language proficiency, and metalinguistic development. In Howel, P., Palij, M., & Aaronson, D. (Eds.), Childhood bilingualism: Aspects of linguistic, cognitive, and social development (pp. 57–74). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire (Vol. 23). Clevedon; Buffalo, N.Y.: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
De Houwer, A. (2011). Language input environments and language development in bilingual acquisition. Applied Linguistics Review, 2, 221–240.Google Scholar
De Houwer, A. (2014). The absolute frequency of maternal input to bilingual and monolingual children. In Input and Experience in Bilingual Development (pp. 37–57). John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, J., Kuiken, F., Jorna, R. J., & Klinkenberg, E. L. (2016). The role of majority and minority language input in the early development of a bilingual vocabulary. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19 (01), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728915000012Google Scholar
Engel de Abreu, P. M. J., Cruz-Santos, A., Tourinho, C. J., Martin, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism enriches the poor: Enhanced cognitive control in low-income minority children. Psychological Science, 23 (11), 1364–1371. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443836Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A., & Cooper, R. L. (1969). Alternative measures of bilingualism. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8 (2), 276–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(69)80076-9Google Scholar
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gasiorek, J., & Vincze, L. (2016). Modeling motives for bilingual accommodation by minority and majority language speakers. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 35 (3), 305–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X15605144Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., & Moawad, R. A. (2010). Semantic interaction in early and late bilinguals: All words are not created equally. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13 (04), 385–408. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990460Google Scholar
Gibson, T. A., Oller, D. K., Jarmulowicz, L., & Ethington, C. A. (2012). The receptive–expressive gap in the vocabulary of young second-language learners: Robustness and possible mechanisms. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (1), 102–106. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000490Google Scholar
Golinkoff, R. M., De Villiers, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Iglesias, A., & Sweig Wilson, M. (2017). Quick Interactive Language Screener (QUILS). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co. Retrieved from http://products.brookespublishing.com/Quick-Interactive-Language-Screener-QUILS-P1029.aspxGoogle Scholar
Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25 (5), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.796377Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1989). Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language, 36 (1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(89)90048-5Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2013). Bilingualism: A short introduction. In Grosjean, F. & Li, P. (Eds.), The psycholinguistics of bilingualism (Vol. 2nd, p. 5). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hamers, J. F., & Blanc, M. (2000). Bilinguality and bilingualism (2nd ed.). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hartanto, A., & Yang, H. (2016). Disparate bilingual experiences modulate task-switching advantages: A diffusion-model analysis of the effects of interactional context on switch costs. Cognition, 150, 10–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.01.016Google Scholar
Hoff, E., Core, C., Place, S., Rumiche, R., Señor, M., & Parra, M. (2012). Dual language exposure and early bilingual development. Journal of Child Language, 39 (01), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000910000759Google Scholar
Hulstijn, J. H. (2012). The construct of language proficiency in the study of bilingualism from a cognitive perspective. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (2), 422–432.Google Scholar
Karlsson, L. C., Soveri, A., Räsänen, P., Kärnä, A., Delatte, S., Lagerström, E., Mård, L., Steffansson, M., Lehtonen, M., & Laine, M. (2015). Bilingualism and performance on two widely used developmental neuropsychological test batteries. PLoS ONE, 10 (4).Google Scholar
Kaushanskaya, M. (2012). Cognitive mechanisms of word learning in bilingual and monolingual adults: The role of phonological memory. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (3), 470–489.Google Scholar
Kaushanskaya, M., & Prior, A. (2015). Variability in the effects of bilingualism on cognition: It is not just about cognition, it is also about bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18 (01), 27–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728914000510Google Scholar
Kormi-Nouri, R., Moradi, A.-R., Moradi, S., Akbari-Zardkhaneh, S., & Zahedian, H. (2012). The effect of bilingualism on letter and category fluency tasks in primary school children: Advantage or disadvantage? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (02), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000192Google Scholar
Kovelman, I., Baker, S. A., & Petitto, L.-A. (2008). Age of first bilingual language exposure as a new window into bilingual reading development. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11 (2), 203–223. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728908003386Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25 (5), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.799170Google Scholar
Kuo, L.-J., & Anderson, R. C. (2010). Beyond cross-language transfer: Reconceptualizing the impact of early bilingualism on phonological awareness. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14 (4), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888431003623470Google Scholar
Luk, G. (2015). Who are the bilinguals (and monolinguals)? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18 (01), 35–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728914000625Google Scholar
Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: Interaction between language proficiency and usage. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25 (5), 605–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.795574Google Scholar
Luk, G., & Christodoulou, J. A. (2016). Assessing and understanding the needs of dual-language learners. In Lesaux, N. K. & Jones, S. M. (Eds.), Leading edge of early childhood education: linking science to policy for a new generation (pp. 67–90). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Luk, G., de Sa, E., & Bialystok, E. (2011). Is there a relation between onset age of bilingualism and enhancement of cognitive control? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14 (04), 588–595. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728911000010Google Scholar
Mackey, W. F. (1962). The description of bilingualism. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 7, 51–85.Google Scholar
Marchman, V. A., Martínez, L. Z., Hurtado, N., Grüter, T., & Fernald, A. (2017). Caregiver talk to young Spanish-English bilinguals: comparing direct observation and parent-report measures of dual-language exposure. Developmental Science, 20 (1), e12425. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12425Google Scholar
Marchman, V. A., & Martinez-Sussmann, C. (2002). Concurrent validity of caregiver/parent report measures of language for children who are learning both English and Spanish. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45 (5), 983–997.Google Scholar
Marinis, T., & Chondrogianni, V. (2010). Production of tense marking in successive bilingual children: When do they converge with their monolingual peers? International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12 (1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549500903434125Google Scholar
McNeill, B., & Everatt, J. (2013). Meta-linguistic predictors of word-level literacy skills in monolingual and language minority learners. Speech, Language and Hearing, 16 (2), 92–98. https://doi.org/10.1179/2050571X13Z.00000000012Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2009). Reexamining the fundamental difference hypothesis: What can early bilinguals tell us? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 225–257. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263109090299Google Scholar
Nguyen, T.-K., & Astington, J. W. (2014). Reassessing the bilingual advantage in theory of mind and its cognitive underpinnings. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (2), 396–409. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728913000394Google Scholar
O'Hora, D., Pelaez, M., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2005). Derived relational responding and performance on verbal subtests of the WAIS-III. The Psychological Record, 55 (1), 155–175.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Pearson, B. Z., & Cobo-Lewis, A. B. (2007). Profile effects in early bilingual language and literacy. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28 (2), 191–230. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716407070117Google Scholar
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66 (2), 232–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.12.002Google Scholar
Paradis, J. (2017). Parent report data on input and experience reliably predict bilingual development and this is not trivial. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20 (1), 27–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672891600033XGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J., & Nicoladis, E. (2007). The influence of dominance and sociolinguistic context on bilingual preschoolers’ language choice. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10 (3), 277–297. https://doi.org/10.2167/beb444.0Google Scholar
Park, H. I., & Ziegler, N. (2014). Cognitive shift in the bilingual mind: Spatial concepts in Korean–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (02), 410–430. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728913000400Google Scholar
Peal, E., & Lambert, W. E. (1962). The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 76 (27), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093840Google Scholar
Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M., & Kester, E. S. (2016). Assessment of language impairment in bilingual children using semantic tasks: two languages classify better than one. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 51 (2), 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12199Google Scholar
Peña, E. D., Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., Iglesias, A., Goldstein, B., & Bedore, L. M. (2014). Bilingual English Spanish Assessment. San Rafael, CA: A-R Clinical Publ.Google Scholar
Portocarrero, J. S., Burright, R. G., & Donovick, P. J. (2007). Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 22 (3), 415–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acn.2007.01.015Google Scholar
Prochazka, K., & Vogl, G. (2017). Quantifying the driving factors for language shift in a bilingual region. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114 (17), 4365–4369. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617252114Google Scholar
Rolla San Francisco, A., Mo, E., Carlo, M., August, D., & Snow, C. (2006). The influences of language of literacy instruction and vocabulary on the spelling of Spanish-English bilinguals. Reading and Writing, 19 (6), 627–642. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-006-9012-3Google Scholar
Rolstad, K., Mahoney, K. S., & Glass, G. V. (2005). Weighing the evidence: A meta-analysis of bilingual education in Arizona. Bilingual Research Journal, 29 (1), 43–67.Google Scholar
Ross, J., & Melinger, A. (2017). Bilingual advantage, bidialectal advantage or neither? Comparing performance across three tests of executive function in middle childhood. Developmental Science, 20 (4), e12405. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12405Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81 (1), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01378.xGoogle Scholar
Scheele, A. F., Leseman, P. P. M., & Mayo, A. Y. (2010). The home language environment of monolingual and bilingual children and their language proficiency. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31 (01), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716409990191Google Scholar
Solari, E. J., Petscher, Y., & Folsom, J. S. (2014). Differentiating literacy growth of ELL students with LD from other high-risk subgroups and general education peers: Evidence from grades 3–10. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47 (4), 329–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219412463435Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (1994). Assessment of L2 proficiency in second language acquisition research. Language Learning, 44 (2), 307–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01104.xGoogle Scholar
Unsworth, S. (2008). Comparing child L2 development with adult L2 development: How to measure L2 proficiency. In Gavruseva, E. & Haznedar, B. (Eds.), Current trends in child second language acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Unsworth, S. (2016). Early child L2 acquisition: Age or input effects? Neither, or both? Journal of Child Language, 43 (3), 608–634. https://doi.org/10.1017/S030500091500080XGoogle Scholar
Yow, W. Q., & Markman, E. M. (2011). Bilingualism and children's use of paralinguistic cues to interpret emotion in speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14 (04), 562–569. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000404Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Surrain and Luk supplementary material

Surrain and Luk supplementary material 1

Download Surrain and Luk supplementary material(File)
File 121.4 KB