ERIC Number: EJ1117675
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Nov
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-755X
EISSN: N/A
Bilingual Enhancements Have No Socioeconomic Boundaries
Krizman, Jennifer; Skoe, Erika; Kraus, Nina
Developmental Science, v19 n6 p881-891 Nov 2016
To understand how socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism simultaneously operate on cognitive and sensory function, we examined executive control, language skills, and neural processing of sound in adolescents who differed in language experience (i.e. English monolingual or Spanish-English bilingual) and level of maternal education (a proxy for SES). We hypothesized that experience communicating in two languages provides an enriched linguistic environment that can bolster neural precision in subcortical auditory processing which, in turn, enhances cognitive and linguistic function, regardless of the adolescent's socioeconomic standing. Consistent with this, we report that adolescent bilinguals of both low and high SES demonstrate more stable neural responses, stronger phonemic decoding skills, and heightened executive control, relative to their monolingual peers. These results support the argument that bilingualism can bolster cognitive and neural function in low-SES children and suggest that strengthened neural response consistency provides a biological mechanism through which these enhancements occur.
Descriptors: Socioeconomic Status, Bilingualism, Adolescents, Language Enrichment, Bilingual Students, Monolingualism, Language Skills
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF); National Institutes of Health (DHHS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: SMA1015614; DC009399; F31DC01422101