Investigating the Relationship of Working Memory and Inhibitory Control: Bilingual Education and Pedagogical Implications in Elementary School

Abstract

Present study aims to shed light on the relationship of working memory and executive functioning in bilingual elementary school children when compared with monolingual population of the same age. The investigation of the relationship between working memory and language learning abilities of children, who are bilingual, is particularly important as it plays a key role in understanding the literacy and language competence of bilingual populations. The purpose of this study was to examine Verbal Working Memory and Executive Functions in 20 bilingual elementary school students who were compared to 20 monolingual school-age students in different cognitive tasks. The research results showed that bilingual students did not appear to perform better in Working Memory compared to the performance of monolingual students of the same age. Correspondingly, bilingual students performed better in the task of inhibitory control and cognitive change. The findings of the present study reinforce the hypothesis that when learning a language, be it the mother tongue or the foreign /second language, the working memory does not correlate to all executive functions but forms a separate cognitive function. The implications of bilingual learning strategies in multicultural class settings are discussed as a pedagogical memory frame that can empower academic achievement while acknowledging the importance of acquiring standardized language skills by promoting a variety of memory strategies.

Scoping review of research practices in the investigation of bilingual effects on inhibition and attention in young people

“…Yang, 2015). The recruitment of multi-nation samples was rare (but see Samuel et al, 2018; Sofologi et al, 2020). The next most common research locations were Canada (16%) and the United Kingdom (14%).…”

“…This included one study in which a sample of English-Korean bilinguals in the United States was compared with Korean monolingual participants tested in South Korea (E. Yang, 2015). The recruitment of multi-nation samples was rare (but see Samuel et al, 2018;Sofologi et al, 2020). The next most common research locations were Canada (16%) and the United Kingdom (14%).…”

Differences between Monolinguals and Bilinguals in Phonetic and Phonological Learning and the Connection with Auditory Sensory Memory

“…Based on this, we consider performance on the terminal items of a list mainly to reflect the working of auditory sensory memory, while not excluding the possibility of interference from additional mechanisms interacting with it, such as working memory where they need to hold incoming L2 information while decoding it. One should note, however, that recent work by Sofologi et al [ 40 ] showed no differences in working memory between monolingual and bilingual students of the same age, while at the same time finding a bilingual advantage in inhibitory control and cognitive change. The authors conclude that when learning a (first or second) language, working memory does not correlate to all executive functions but forms a separate cognitive function.…”

Effectiveness of Musical Training on Reading Comprehension in Elementary School Children. Is There an Associative Cognitive Benefit?

“…Several experimental designs proposed that music training strengthens the association between cognitive functions, working memory, and reading comprehension ability. Furthermore, researchers claim that learning a musical language may have cognitive benefits like those in bilingual children (Craik and Bialystok, 2005;Sofologi et al, 2020b). Although this view has intuitive appeal because music and language are both auditory communication systems, the positive effects of bilingualism are evident for fluid intelligence (i.e., executive control) but not for crystallized intelligence (e.g., knowledge acquired through experience, such as vocabulary), whereas the effects of music lessons and music training appear to extend to both domains (Shen et al, 2019).…”