TY - JOUR
T1 - Does long-term dual-language immersion affect children's executive functioning?
AU - Neveu, Anne
AU - Crespo, Kimberly
AU - Ellis Weismer, Susan
AU - Kaushanskaya, Margarita
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Dual-language immersion (DLI) experience has been linked to enhanced reading and math skills in minority- and majority-language elementary school children. However, it remains unclear whether DLI experience can also enhance executive functioning. The current study took a longitudinal approach to this question and examined the effect of DLI experience on the development of executive function skills in majority-language children over a 1-year period. In total, 33 monolingual children attending English-only classrooms (Mage = 9.17 years, SD = 1.03) and 33 English–Spanish bilingual children attending DLI classrooms (Mage = 9.27 years, SD = 0.94) matched on age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and socioeconomic status were tested twice, 1 year apart, on nonverbal measures of inhibition, shifting, switching, and monitoring. Results revealed a significant interaction between group and year only on the response inhibition task, with bilinguals showing superior inhibition in Year 1 but not in Year 2. The two groups performed equivalently on all other measures at both time points. Results suggest that classroom DLI has a minimal impact on executive functions, at least as tested in the current study.
AB - Dual-language immersion (DLI) experience has been linked to enhanced reading and math skills in minority- and majority-language elementary school children. However, it remains unclear whether DLI experience can also enhance executive functioning. The current study took a longitudinal approach to this question and examined the effect of DLI experience on the development of executive function skills in majority-language children over a 1-year period. In total, 33 monolingual children attending English-only classrooms (Mage = 9.17 years, SD = 1.03) and 33 English–Spanish bilingual children attending DLI classrooms (Mage = 9.27 years, SD = 0.94) matched on age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and socioeconomic status were tested twice, 1 year apart, on nonverbal measures of inhibition, shifting, switching, and monitoring. Results revealed a significant interaction between group and year only on the response inhibition task, with bilinguals showing superior inhibition in Year 1 but not in Year 2. The two groups performed equivalently on all other measures at both time points. Results suggest that classroom DLI has a minimal impact on executive functions, at least as tested in the current study.
KW - Bilingualism
KW - Dual-language immersion
KW - Executive functions
KW - Inhibitory Control
KW - Longitudinal approach
KW - Majority-language children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103286433&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105127
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105127
M3 - Article
C2 - 33780824
AN - SCOPUS:85103286433
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 208
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
M1 - 105127
ER -