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Cognitive benefits in children enrolled in an early bilingual immersion school: A follow up study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2015

ANNE-CATHERINE NICOLAY  and
MARTINE PONCELET
ANNE-CATHERINE NICOLAY*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, University of Liège, Belgium
MARTINE PONCELET
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, University of Liège, Belgium
*
Address for correspondence: Anne-Catherine Nicolay, Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, Language and Learning Neuropsychology Unit, Boulevard du Rectorat, B33, 4000 Liège, Belgium[email protected]
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Abstract

Recent findings suggested that an L2-immersion school experience produced some of the cognitive benefits associated with early bilingualism. However, the cognitive differences observed might possibly be due to greater cognitive development in the immersion group before the children started the immersion program. The present study thus aimed at revisiting these results in a follow-up design in which children about to begin an L2-immersion program and monolinguals were matched for cognitive development. Our results support the previous findings and this longitudinal study strongly confirms that only 3 years in an L2-immersion program enhance the performance of the attentional/executive control network.

Keywords

bilingualismsecond-language immersion educationattentional functionsexecutive functions
Type
Research Note
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 789 - 795
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from the Research Council of University of Liège, Belgium.

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