Bilingual education enhances creative fluency and flexibility over the first year of primary school

Valeria Agostini, Ian Apperly, Andrea Krott

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Can exposure to a foreign language in the first year of school enhance divergent thinking skills? Ninety-nine monolingual children from predominantly White neighbourhoods (MAge = 57.7 months, SD 1.2; 47 girls) attending bilingual schools, schools with weekly foreign language lessons, or schools without a foreign language provision (= controls) completed a divergent thinking and executive function tasks at the beginning of the school year and 24 weeks later. The groups did not differ on creativity measures at the beginning of the school year. Only bilingual school children and weekly language learners improved divergent thinking at the second testing point, with the former significantly outperforming controls on creative fluency and flexibility. Improvements could not be explained by executive function development. Therefore, a considerable amount of exposure to a foreign language in early formal education appears to boost creative thinking.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBilingualism: Language and Cognition
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 1 Aug 2014

Keywords

  • bilingualism
  • second language learning
  • creativity
  • divergent thinking
  • bilingual education

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Bilingual education enhances creative fluency and flexibility over the first year of primary school'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this