The pedagogical methods strived to facilitate a faster educational process are versatile and concern new technologies in teaching and studying. The research paper under analysis is dedicated to the concept of bilingualism of children in contrast with those of their counterparts being monolingual. The point is that many bilinguals differ from monolinguals in terms of better retention among pupils.
Different approaches coincide in the conclusion that bilingual children are rather apt in gaining knowledge and information on the whole than the rest of monolingual children. The concept of memory development is important to capture the two types of tasks having been carried out in Sweden: episodic and semantic. Scientists and researchers should work out the methods and approaches in order to estimate and implement the phenomenon of bilingual significance for the educational system.
This article consists of such parts as Introduction; Experiments from 1st to 4th with sub-points, namely description, method, result; and Discussion. The research is accompanied by the works and experiments of three scientists for social and psychological affairs, namely, Kami-Nouri, Moniri, and Nilsson, whose approaches towards making out standpoints of the paper concern other well-known researchers in this field.
One of the main points of the study work is to implement memory tasks similar in advantage and thematic background for two groups of children living in a multinational society. Here the core aspect of many researchers is incorporated into the logical understanding of bilingual advantage for children due to the hypothesis of “cross-language interactivity.” (94). Mastering two or more languages, with regards to Kessler and Quinn, gives children additional “perspectives into problem-solving tasks.” (94)
As for another point standing in line with the above-mentioned hypothesis, it is considered that two languages help not less than twice a time enrich the process of information evaluation and storing it comprising the view on the things from linguistic peculiarities in each language. Though, the picture of life and things developing in it is considered among bilinguals with dual features when analyzing this or that thing.
The main researchers are intended to work out the outcomes of bilingual children in two linguistic prospects in contrast with monolingual peers. The first case assumes the effects between the bilinguals with similar languages in terms of phonological, morphological as well as syntactical features (Persian and Kurdish). The second case concerns two not-similar languages (Persian and Turkish). The thing is that Persian and Kurdish languages, in spite of Turkish have Indo-European roots in their language families. Turkish, on the other hand, is appropriate for a Caucasian group of languages.
Experiment 1 includes “subject-performed and verbal tasks” (95), which are made out through two types of sentences: well-integrated and poorly-integrated. The encoding approach is used. Participants of the project were pupils of different study levels, and adult representatives numbered 144. The task deals with written exercises on structuring words or sentences in an appropriate order. Moreover, in the experiment, a recognition test was used because of its relevance to “item-specific information.” (96). The tables provided show that in the experiment, the bilingual advantage was felt in the episodic memory.
Experiment 2 has a similar description only with the addition that relational information as of sentence structure is used rather than integration. The number of participants, materials, and procedure are equivalent in many points to the previous experiment. With regards to the episodic memory task, bilinguals were best in “type scoring,” especially Turkish-Persian children. The disadvantage was observed in the “letter fluency test.” (99). The structuring of the list showed the relevant sameness between bilinguals and monolinguals.
Experiment 3 is aimed in spite of two previous experiments at finding out the relations in age differences using the same tasks but only for male bilinguals of Turkish-Persian origin and male monolinguals of Persian origin. They are divided into two groups of 60 persons in each mentioning the “socioeconomic” background within the group. The advantage of bilingual ability was seen in sentence scoring only for children in Grade 11. Scoring of verbs and nouns stimulated both Grades to present the advantage. Other types of tests showed the supremacy of bilingual participants as well.
Experiment 4 evaluates the fact whether the sentence memory can impact and coincide with the word memory in the case of bilingual children. Here the researchers take into account the first (native) and the second language of the participants who were separated into two groups of forty monolingual and the same number of bilingual pupils from two different cities and selected from two Grades (3, 11). As a result, both age groups had an advantage in word recall, and on the whole, the supremacy of bilingual pupils appeared beyond controversy.
Using the experimental compare/contrast analysis among Persian-Swedish and Swedish children being bilingual and monolingual, respectively pointing out episodic and semantic memory tasks, Kormi-Nouri theoretically supported previously stated findings in the field of linguistic peculiarities influencing memory. The results of promoted experiments showed that with longer use of both languages, bilinguals are more efficient in decision-making tasks; their reaction to linguistic phenomena is faster and more concerned. Also, the older bilingual children are more apt in their bilingualism than the younger ones.
References
Kormi-Nouri, Reza (2008). The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 93–109.