"Attentional control in early and later bilingual children."
Summary:
Kapa and Colombo studied the differences in cognitive attentional control among monolingual children and bilingual children. The test used to calculate these differences was the Attention Network Test or ANT. This test measures the different aspects of attention, such as overall reaction time and alerting. Kapa and Colombo discovered that early childhood bilinguals outperformed, specifically in response time, their monolingual peers. However, older bilinguals and monolinguals did not differ in attention monitoring, thus suggesting that the age of second language acquisition plays a role in the cognitive and attentional monitoring advantages children gain from bilingualism.
In order to further research the effect of second language Kapa and Colombo performed a study using monolingual children who spoke solely English, early bilingual children who began speaking two languages by the age of three, and later childhood bilingual children who spoke English initially and began a second language after the age of three. For consistency and scientific reasons the language spoken by the early and later bilinguals was Spanish. Population age, size, and sex were all taken into account and controlled. The test the participants performed was again the Attention Network Test. The findings concluded that early bilingual children outperformed both monolinguals and later bilingual children in their reaction time. Kapa and Colombo hypothesize that early bilingual children develop larger attentional advantages because they are used to controlling and relaying two languages for the majority of their life, unlike monolingual and later bilingual children.
The sources summary of itself in the abstract and introduction closely match my sense of the actual work done throughout the source. I summarize Kapa and Colombo’s experiment accurately and relay their conclusions to the best of my ability.
Source in relation to my research question:
This source, similar to my second source, helped me understand the effects of bilingualism on the attentional aspect of children’s cognitive development. It also introduced the factor of age at which children acquire a second language. Kapa and Colombo’s conclusions goes as follows, “These results add to evidence of advantaged cognitive functioning among bilinguals and are consistent with the possibility that children who begin speaking a second language earlier in childhood have greater advantages, due either to effects of acquiring a second language earlier or to longer duration of bilingual experience.” (Kapa and Colombo 233) Thus providing evidence that early age multilingualism positively effects children’s cognitive functions such as cognitive control and attentional monitoring. One aspect that Kapa and Colombo do not expand upon is that these children they studied may be innately cognately well off. Thus their bilingual development was aided by their innate intelligence.
In Wendy Rodriguez’s narrative, “Awkward Situations” she talks about her experiences growing up as a translator for parents who did not speak fluent English. Although Wendy did not touch on how being a translator at such an early age influenced her cognitively, it is safe to suggest it had some effect on her as she is a student at Emory, an accomplishment that is not attained by someone of average intelligence. However, it may be the fact that Wendy was a translator that she is cognitively well off, not simply because she is bilingual. Kapa and Colombo do not talk about how translating can lead to cognitive advantages. Wendy’s narrative extends Kapa and Colombo’s research beyond simply how being multilingual prompts cognitive advantages among children. Therefore further research on how being a translator could lead to more insight on how multilingualism affects the cognition of children.
Kapa, Leah, and John Colombo. "Attentional control in early and later bilingual children." Cognitive Development 28.3 (2013): 233-246. Ulrichsweb. Web. 23 Oct 2013. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201413000178>.