7 Bilingualism and cognitive development : three perspectives

The problem of researching the relation between bilingualism and cognitive development at once raises two thorny definitional issues. What do we mean by bilingualism, and what is it that develops in cognitive development? Much of the confusion in this area can be attributed to the lack of theoretical specificity in defining the intersection point of these component concepts. Our primary emphasis in this chapter is on the definition of bilingualism, with a secondary emphasis on cognitive development. The reason for the asymmetry is to be consistent with the traditional assumption that bilingualism is the independent treatment variable and Cognitive growth is the dependent outcome variable, even though, as we shall see, very few studies actually address the cause-effect issue. The major goal of this chapter is to demonstrate the great range of social and theoretical contexts in which the question has historically been asked and to argue for the importance of integrating the many disciplinary levels and perspectives that bear on the problem.