Open AccessBILINGUALISM AND DEVELOPMENT: A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
Author(s) -
Lajos Göncz
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
godišnjak filozofskog fakulteta u novom sadu/godišnjak filozofskog fakulteta u novom sadu
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2334-7236
pISSN - 0374-0730
DOI - 10.19090/gff.2015.1.49-78
Subject(s) - neuroscience of multilingualism , psychology , cognitive psychology , personality , competence (human resources) , cognition , developmental psychology , linguistics , social psychology , philosophy , neuroscience
Research on the relation between bilingualism and psychological development can be structured in many ways. This review will focus on two issues: first, empirical evidence that bilingualism is associated with several aspects of psychological development; and second, holistic and partial explanations for the influence of bilingualism on personality development, whether in general or in particular. Holistic explanations usually begin by distinguishing between additive and subtractive bilingual situations, and then hypothesizing as a result a broad spectrum of behavioural changes in personality. An attempt has been made to illuminate this connection by using concepts from the psychology of learning and motivation. Partial explanations can be found in concepts such as semi-lingualism vs. surface- and cognitive linguistic competence; and in several hypotheses, such as the interdependence of language proficiency in bilinguals, and Cummins’ threshold hypothesis. In conclusion, the accumulated knowledge about bilingual development will be suggested as a resource for better understanding issues of psychological development in general. Future research should concentrate especially on mechanisms that best reverse language shift, on bilingualism and aging, bilingualism and emotions, and on bilingual episodic (autobiographical) memory.