Verbal Abilities in Low and Highly Proficient Bilinguals

Abstract

The study investigated native language verbal skills among low and highly proficient bilinguals, using the WISC III verbal subtests. Highly proficient bilinguals showed a superiority for almost all verbal subtests. This finding lends support to Threshold Theory which maintains that bilinguals need to achieve high levels of linguistic proficiency before bilingualism can promote cognitive development. Our study also shows that verbal ability underlying proficiency in the native language can be generalized to a foreign language, revealing a causal connection between native and foreign language learning.

The relationship between pitch discrimination and Romanian students’ spelling performance

“…The data are consistent with the findings of Andreou and Karapetsas (2004), who found that verbal ability in the native language can be generalized to a foreign language.…”

Individual and longitudinal differences among high and low-achieving, LD, and ADHD L2 learners

“…Andreou and Karapetsas (2004) examined L1 verbal skills among high-and low-proficiency bilinguals whose L1 was Greek and found that high proficiency bilinguals exhibited superiority on all subtests of the WISC-III, Greek version. They speculated that the results showed L1 verbal ability can be generalized to a L2.…”

English Language Learners and Academic Achievement: Revisiting the Threshold Hypothesis

“…Much bilingual research, however, has been conducted in multilingual or two‐languages‐in‐the‐curriculum contexts and has focused, in essence, on testing the higher level TH by comparing low‐ versus high‐level bilinguals (e.g., Andreou & Karapetsas, 2004; Lee & Schallert, 1997; Schoonen, Hulstijn, & Bossers, 1998) or “balanced” bilinguals versus monolinguals (e.g., Costa, Hernández, & Sebastián‐Gallés, 2008; Kormi‐Nouri et al, 2008) on a number of cognitive, metacognitive, and academic outcome measures. With some notable exceptions (see a body of work by Bialystok and colleagues conducted in Canada; e.g., Bialystok, 1986, 1999; Bialystok, McBride‐Chang, & Luk, 2005), research on the correlates of bilingualism with regard to ELLs—particularly in nonbilingual educational environments in the United States—remains limited (see Adesope et al, 2010).…”