Bilingualism and the Intellectual Advantage

Abstract

Bilingualism has been becoming more common within today’s generation as the significance and value of knowing more than one language increases. With the prominence of bilingualism, the purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a correlation between bilingual first/second generation Americans and the intellectual advantage. From previous research, many studies have considered the variables of socioeconomic status [SES], impacts of immigration and culture, and the differing language backgrounds of students. This study will address the gap of clear correlation between bilinguals and the intellectual advantage by determining the relationship between student executive functions and their bilingualism as first/second generation Americans. This was a three-part, quantitative correlational study. Subjects completed a 29.5 minutes three test study including Verbal Fluency Test, SAT passage, and the Stanford-Binet Test. There were eighteen participants for the research study. Of the eighteen, there were nine who were monolinguals and nine who were bilinguals from all grades within the high school. The results had shown increased scores for monolinguals among the three test experiments. Monolingual participants scored especially higher on the Verbal Fluency Test, Stanford-Binet test, and SAT scores. The SAT test scores were similar among both monolingual and bilingual groups. The goal of this experiment was accomplished. We were able to determine whether there was a potential correlation between bilingualism and the intellectual advantage including the factor of first/second generation Americans.