An Investigation into the Bilingual Advantage Through Bilingual Stroop Task

Abstract

the present work k tries to add to the existing research on the bilingual advantage regarding executive function. It is one of the aspects surrounding bilingual cognitive function that is causes quite a lot of debate among researchers. In particular, this study stands out as it features a non-European script language, as one of the studied languages, which is uncommon in the existing research into the bilingual advantage. In this study, a group of sequential Arabic-English bilinguals (n=5) and a group of Arabic monolinguals (n=5) completed an experiment modelled after the Stroop-colour-name task and their performances regarding completing times and accuracy where then compared. If a bilingual advantage exists, then the bilingual group should perform better than the monolingual group. It was found that on average, monolinguals performed more reliably and faster than bilinguals; this included the monolingual Arabic task that was identical between the two groups. It is noteworthy that the bilingual group performed more accurately than monolinguals in two sub-sections of the experiment, but only doing this when those sections were presented in their L2, and while they performed more accurately, they were slower than the monolingual group. The increased accuracy therefore may be a result of decreased reading-familiarity leading to more time being spent on the trial. The results indicate that at least within this study, no bilingual advantage was observed. This study indicates that the bilingual advantage regarding executive control may only manifest itself under specific circumstances and not across all bilinguals, and that more research is needed.