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Abstract
Most language research has focused on monolingual speakers. However, bilingualism/multilingualism is far from unusual. Recent studies reveal that 50% of the world is multilingual and about 20% of households in the U.S. speak more than one language, with the majority using Spanish. Previously, researchers perceived bilingualism as a burden rather than a benefit, especially in children. The burden involves having to learn multiple vocabularies, grammars, and nuances, creating a potential for a smaller vocabulary and weaker associations between actual words and their meaning, as reflected in slower response in naming objects. However, under the right circumstances, many bilinguals are fully functional in both languages, so deficits are not necessarily permanent or profound. In fact, evidence indicates that bilinguals not only have differences in non-language thinking and brain functioning from monolinguals, but also benefits over monolinguals. Research suggests that being bilingual has an effect if both languages are presented from an early age, changing the way bilinguals process and react to information. Being bilingual in childhood seems to accelerate complex cognitive processing. While this advantage appears less marked during the peak of cognitive ability (young adulthood), underlying changes in cognitive abilities and neurological structure carry forward into older adulthood, slowing cognitive decline. Interesting questions remain about the nature of the bilingualism and how it plays a role in generating benefits.
Introduction
THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE of language is arguably the most important characteristic that separates humans from other species. To date, however, most language research has focused on monolingual subjects, in spite of the fact that bilingualism/multilingualism in today's world is far from unusual. Recent studies have revealed that 50% of the world is multilingual (Grosjean, 2010), and that approximately 20% of households in the United States speak more than one language, with the majority of U.S. bilingual speakers using Spanish (Shin & Kominshi, 2010).
But how do bilinguals manage the different languages that they use? How is it that they select one language to use in one setting and then switch to another in another language in another context? How do they switch from one language to the other casually as they converse with a fellow bilingual? These questions all boil down to the question of how bilinguals store, activate, and produce...