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

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 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

Redefining bilingualism as a spectrum of experiences that differentially affect brain structure and function

Learning and using an additional language is shown to have an impact on the structure and function of the brain, including in regions involved in cognitive control and the connections between them. However, the available evidence remains variable in terms of the localization, extent and trajectory of these effects. Variability likely stems from the fact that bilingualism has been routinely operationalized as a categorical variable (bilingual/monolingual), whereas it is a complex and dynamic experience with a number of potentially deterministic factors affecting neural plasticity. Here we present the first study investigating the combined effects of experience-based factors (EBFs) in bilingual language use on brain structure and functional connectivity. EBFs include an array of measures of everyday usage of a second language in different types of immersive settings (e.g., amount of use in social settings). Analyses reveal specific adaptations in the brain, both structural and functional, correlated to individual EBFs and their combined effects. Taken together the data show that the brain adapts to be maximally efficient in the processing and control of two languages, although modulated ultimately by individual language experience

Bidialectalism and bilingualism: Exploring the role of language similarity as a link between linguistic ability and executive control

The notion of bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF) is based on the assumption that the demands posed by cross-language interference serve as EF training. These training effects should be more pronounced the more cross-language interference bilinguals have to overcome when managing their two languages. In the present study, we investigated the proposed link between linguistic and EF performance using the similarity between the two languages spoken since childhood as a proxy for different levels of cross-language interference. We assessed the effect of linearly increasing language dissimilarity on linguistic and EF performance in multiple tasks in four groups of young adults (aged 18–33): German monolinguals (n = 24), bidialectals (n = 25; German and Swiss German dialect), bilinguals speaking two languages of the same Indo-European ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-English), or bilinguals speaking two languages of different ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-Turkish). Bayesian linear-mixed effects modeling revealed substantial evidence for a linear effect of language similarity on linguistic accuracy, with better performance for participants with more similar languages and monolinguals. However, we did not obtain evidence for the presence of a similarity effect on EF performance. Furthermore, language experience did not modulate EF performance, even when testing the effect of continuous indicators of bilingualism (e.g., age of acquisition, proficiency, daily foreign language usage). These findings question the theoretical assumption that life-long experience in managing cross-language interference serves as EF training

The Masked/Unmasked Experiment

This experiment tested whether assessors' use of face masks affected kindergartners' performance on an individually-administered oral language measure. We share the de-identified data and Stata script to replicate our analysis

The Perceptions of Bilingualism Scales

An increasing number of children in the U.S. and around the world are exposed to multiple languages, yet there is considerable variation in individual bilingual outcomes. Previous research has shown that factors such as input, usage, and language history can help explain this variation, but less is known about the role of attitudes towards bilingualism, and no instrument currently exists for measuring such attitudes. Guided by previous theories on language perceptions, we describe two new scales developed to measure general perceptions of the value of bilingualism (study 1: Perceptions of Bilingualism, PoB) and parental perceptions of the value of bilingualism for one’s child (study 2: Perceptions of Bilingualism for child, PoB+) in the United States. We use factor analysis and Item Response Theory (IRT) to test the reliability, dimensionality, and individual item contributions of each scale using a national online sample of 422 adults (study 1) and a subsample of 321 parents (study 2). The final 10 and 8-item scales demonstrate internal reliability, unidimensionality, and precision of the intended construct to be measured. We report associations between scale scores and demographic characteristics and discuss how an IRT approach can complement classical approaches to attitude scale development. The PoB and PoB+ are useful tools to explore the association between social perceptions of bilingualism and language use for oneself and for one’s child