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Asked by gertzerl17 to Sarah, Rebecca, Mark, Katie, Jessie, Courtenay on 27 Feb 2018.
Question: I’m interested in the effect of sign language on English language and literacy skills in hearing, and in bilingualism in general and its effect on literacy.
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Mark Mon-Williams answered on 27 Feb 2018:
These are really interesting questions! I tend to think in terms of information – so sign language MIGHT provide additional information that could aid literacy etc. An interesting research question!
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Rebecca Merkley answered on 27 Feb 2018:
There is a lot of mixed evidence about the effects of bilingualism on literacy. This is a gross oversimplification, but I think the general picture is that learning a second language seems to cause some delays in early vocabulary and literacy. But, bilingual children seem to eventually ‘catch up’ to their monolingual peers.
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Katie Gilligan answered on 27 Feb 2018:
I think Roberto Filipi is doing lots of work on the effects of bilingualism on cognition in general- and it seems to be beneficial to cognition more generally! https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roberto_Filippi
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Sarah McGeown answered on 27 Feb 2018:
There are a number of researchers in the UK conducting research in this area – Claudine Bowyer Crane and Lynne Duncan spring to mind.
Comments
modannie commented on :
A quick search in the questions section of this site showed me one article that concluded “simultaneously presenting words visually, kinaesthetically, and orally enhances a child’s vocabulary development.” It is of course just one paper – http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03634529409378987?src=recsys
Mark commented on :
There is a lot of work showing bilingualism can be beneficial BUT we in Bradford we see evidence that English as an Additional language can be (probabilistically) a risk factor. These are the types of issues we are trying to resolve within the ‘Born in Bradford’ study.
liac commented on :
This blog may be of interest – https://thinkneuroscience.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/how-the-brain-processes-language/
Rebecca commented on :
I also know Victoria Murphy, a professor in the Education Department at the University of Oxford does a lot of work on bilingual and EAL learners and language and literacy. And she does some work with an organization called NALDIC: https://naldic.org.uk/
Mark commented on :
Lots of evidence that cognition can be adversely affected… the research showing benefits is typically done in higher SEP groups. This is why large scale studies that can control for multiple factors are needed (such as Born in Bradford)
Katie commented on :
You’re correct Mark. Big studies where multiple factors can be controlled for will give us a better idea of the impact of bilingualism on cognition!