Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition

by Ellen Bialystok

Bilingualism in Development describes research on the intellectual development of bilingual children, showing how it is different from that of monolingual children. The focus is on preschool children, examining how they learn language, how they acquire literacy skills, and how they develop problem-solving ability in different domains. It is unique in that it assembles a wide range of research on children's development and interprets it within an analysis of how bilingualism affects that development. It is the only book to interpret this large research from a single theoretical perspective, leading to coherent conclusions.

Genres: Linguistics, Education

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[deLille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a rather exhaustive review of all the research that has been done on how bilingual children differ from monolingual children, and at times the book becomes a real chore to read. The book is laden with jargon-rich prose with sentences exceeding thirty words at a time. Even a simpler statement like, “The spatial metaphor of structuralism is replaced by the intensity metaphor of processing,” requires going back and reading again to make sure you got the point!

The take-away from this book is something we probably already knew and that is: language shapes thoughts by giving structure and form to concepts. People who speak in other languages really DO think about the world in a conceptually different way. One example that I found particularly illuminating was the different ways that English and Korean speakers perceive the words “on” and “in”. For English speakers, the difference between the two words depends on an object’s relationship to the surface area (“on”) or the containment (“in”) of a certain item. For Koreans, the difference between the two words is whether or not there is a loose-fitting (“on”) or a tight-fitting (“in”) relationship between the object and the item. Infants learning both languages actually can make the distinction between the two conceptual ways of viewing the same situation.

There are both cognitive advantages and disadvantages to being raised bilingually, most notably that the bilingual child is slower to build vocabulary in either language because two different vocabularies are being acquired at the same time. There are just so many new words a child can cram into his or her brain each day. However, most disadvantages noted seem to phase out over time. Overall, the major advantage is that bilingual children mentally develop in such ways that their brains pay more attention to a shift in “rules” involving almost anything, not just language. They are also more likely to readjust their approach to a new, but similar, task requiring a different solution rather than default to a successful strategy they may have used in the past.

The author notes that as the human brain ages, it tends to more readily turn towards the familiar routines and is less likely to be attuned to a change in the environment or the need for a different problem solving method. While this book included research involving children, I’d love to see a study done that shows if the bilingual mind ages as rapidly as the monolingual mind, or if some of the mental flexibility acquired in the bilingual’s youth carries over into his or her old age.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my thesis. It is rather interesting but very exhausting, another person from good reads perfectly summarized my thoughts: “The book is a rather exhaustive review of all the research that has been done on how bilingual children differ from monolingual children, and at times the book becomes a real chore to read. The book is laden with jargon-rich prose with sentences exceeding thirty words at a time. Even a simpler statement like, "The spatial metaphor of structuralism is replaced by the intensity metaphor of processing," requires going back and reading again to make sure you got the point!” (DeLille)

[Mark]

One of the least useful books I've ever encountered. If you want a metabook this is great. If you want to work out if your 2-year old is behind the curve for language acquisition and production in a bilingual household you 'll be out of luck.
Biggest waste of money I ever spent on a book.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating of three stars is for the second half of the book only.

The first half gets one star. The reason is that it was WAY too scholarly for me. It was impossible for me to understand.

The second half was about experiments done on bilingual and monolingual children, and also a bit about bilingual education and so forth. I found this part interesting. (This sort of information was why I got the book in the first place.) It still was not an "exciting" read, but at least I could understand it.