A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE PROCESS

Grant Essuman, Prince Festus Eku-Hyia, Simon Baffour Awuah

Abstract


Over the past few decades, scholars on bilingualism have been widely covered, but there is still much to discover, especially in the sphere of bilingual education. There is inadequate systematic review on studies that examine the trends, effects, methodological approaches, challenges and limitations of bilingual education. The paper aims to offer a current trend of bilingual education and language process or performance through qualitative critical and content analysis. A total of 20 articles published from 2015 to 2025 in languages, predominantly bilingual education-related journals, both foreign and local, were purposively selected to achieve a systematic and content review of bilingual education and language process. The paper endeavours to give a systematic report on the findings categorized under trends, effects, methodological approaches, challenges and limitations. Prevailing findings emerged: (a) an increasing trend in the study of bilingual education and individual factors affecting bilingual education, (b) the existence of inconsistent effects, (c) the need to re-evaluate methodological approaches, and (d) inadequate local based research carried out in Ghana. The paper also brings on board suggestions and opportunities for future research in bilingual education and language process.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


systematic review, bilingualism, multilingual, bilingual education, language process, qualitative method, challenges, intelligence quotient, inhibition control

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abu Rabia, S. (2019). The effect of degrees of bilingualism on metacognitive linguistic skills. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(5), 1064-1086. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006918781060

Antoniou, M. (2019). The advantages of bilingualism debate. Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, 1-21.

Bacca, J., Baldiris, S., Fabregat, R., Graf, S. & Kinshuk. (2014). Augmented Reality Trends in Education: A Systematic Review of Research and Applications. Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 133–149. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286049823_Augmented_Reality_Trends_in_Education_A_Systematic_Review_of_Research_and_Applications

Baran, E. (2014). A Review of Research on Mobile Learning in Teacher Education. Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 17-32. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267337349_A_Review_of_Research_on_Mobile_Learning_in_Teacher_Education

Bialystok, E. & Martin, M. M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science, 7, 325-339. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00351.x

Bialystok, E. (2017). The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin 143(3), 233-262. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000099

Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M. & Freedman, M. (2007). Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 459-464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.06.008

Broos, W. P. J., Duyck, W. & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2018). Are Higher-Level Processes Delayed in Second Language Word Production? Evidence from Picture Naming and Phoneme Monitoring. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 33(10), 1219-1234. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2018.1457168

Bruin, A. D., Treccani, B. & Sala, S. D. (2015). Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias? Psychological Science. 26(1), 99-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614557866

Chan, S. Heng & Abdullah, A. Nadzimah. (2015). Bilingualism in Malaysia: language education policy and local needs. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 23, 55-70. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298091549_Bilingualism_in_Malaysia_Language_education_policy_and_local_needs

Costa, A., Hernández, M., Faidella, C. J. & Galles, S. N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: now you see it, now you don’t. Cognition, 113, 135-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.06.001

Emmorey, K., Giezen, M. & Gollan, T. (2016). Psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neural implications of bimodal bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(2), 223-242. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728915000085

Filippi, R., D’Souza, D. & Bright, P. (2018). A developmental approach to bilingual research: The effects of multilingual experience from early infancy to old age. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(5), 1195–1207. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006917749061

Filippi, R., Morris, J., Richardson, F., Bright, P., Thomas, M., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Marian, V. (2015). Bilingual children show an advantage in controlling verbal interference during spoken language comprehension. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(3), 490-501. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728914000686

Fricke, M., Zirnstein, M., Navarro-Torres, C. & Kroll, J. (2018). Bilingualism reveals fundamental variation in language processing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(1), 200-207. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000482

Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67-81. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728998000133

Hämäläinen, S., Sairanen, V., Leminen, A. & Lehtonen, M. (2017). Bilingualism modulates the white matter structure of language-related pathways. Neuro Image, 152, 249-257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.081

Hamers, J. F., & Blanc, M. H. A. (1983). Bilinguality & bilingualism. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99012600.pdf

Hasrul, K., Hazita, A., Azizah, M., Z. (2018). Research Trend in the Practice of Differentiated Instruction. The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 4(12), 648-668. https://doi.org/10.32861/jssr.412.648.668

Havy, M., Bouchon, C. & Nazzi, T. (2016). Phonetic processing when learning words: The case of bilingual infants. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 40(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415570646

Hsieh, H. F. & Shannon, S. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15, 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687

Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bice, K., & Perrotti, L. (2015). Bilingualism, Mind, and Brain. Annual review of linguistics, 1, 377–394. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-124937

Legault, J., Grant, A., Fang, S.-Y. & Li, P. (2019). A Longitudinal Investigation of Structural Brain Changes During Second Language Learning. Brain and Language, 197, 1-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104661

Leikin, M. (2012). The effect of bilingualism on creativity: Developmental and educational perspectives. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17, 431-447. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912438300

Mihat, W., Azman, H. & Soh, O.K. (2018). Bringing reading research in multilingual Nusantara into a new direction through eye-tracking. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 3(2), 107–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol3iss2pp107-123

Opfer, V. & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81(3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311413609

Paramesvaran, M. D. & Jia, W. Lim. (2018). Code-switching practices in a Malaysian multilingual primary classroom from teacher and student perspectives. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v8i2.13273

Pavani, M., Yap, N. T., Shamala, P., & I. Jalaluddin. (2019). Incidental and Intentional Learning of Vocabulary among Young ESL Learners. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(4), 51 – 67 http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2019-2504-04

Philip, B., Tan, K. H. & W. A. Jandar (2019). Exploring Teacher Cognition in Malaysian ESL Classrooms. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(4), 156 – 178. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2019-2504-10

Pliatsikas, C., Deluca, V., Moschopoulou, E. & Saddy, J. D. (2016). Immersive Bilingualism Reshapes the Core of the Brain. Brain Structure and Function, 222(4), 1785-1795. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1307-9

Rossi, E., Diaz, M., Kroll, J. F. & Dussias, P. E. (2017). Late Bilinguals Are Sensitive to Unique Aspects of Second Language Processing: Evidence from Clitic Pronouns Word-Order. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(342), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00342

Salleh, R., Kawaguchi, S. & Biase, B. D. (2019). A Case Study on the Acquisition of Plurality in a Bilingual Malay-English Context-bound Child. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 19(3), 22-42. http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2019-1903-02

Salleh, R., Kawaguchi, S., Jones, C. & Biase, B.D. (2016). The development of plural expressions in a Malay-English bilingual Child. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 10(2), 60-81. https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v10i2.864

Sarah Yusri & Or-Kan, Soh. (2019). Examining University Students’ Reading Performances and Behaviors with the Use of Eye-Trackers. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(8), 114–123. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v9-i8/6221

Scandoval, T. C., Gollan, T. H., Ferreira, V. S. & Salmon, D. P. (2010). What causes the bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency? The dual-task analogy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 231-252. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990514

Soh, O.-K. (2017). Processing academic science reading texts through context effects: Evidence from eye movements. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(3), 771-790. https://www.ejmste.com/download/processing-academic-science-reading-texts-through-context-effects-evidence-from-eye-movements-4689.pdf

Soh, Or-Kan. (2016). Examining the reading behaviours and performances of sixth-graders for reading instruction: evidence from eye movements. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 12(4), 63-79. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1137

Suri, H. & Clarke, D. (2009). Advancements in research synthesis methods: From a methodologically inclusive perspective. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 395–430. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308326349

Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(1), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728914000522

Webster, J. & Watson, R. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 26, xiii–xxiii. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4132319

White, E., Titone, D., Genesee, F. & Steinhauer, K. (2017). Phonological processing in late second language learners: The effects of proficiency and task. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(1), 162-183. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/article/abs/phonological-processing-in-late-second-language-learners-the-effects-of-proficiency-and-task/219442112F85BAC4749A42CF61D160CC

Zirnstein, M., van Hell, J. G. & Kroll, J. F. (2019). Cognitive control and language ability contribute to online reading comprehension: Implications for older adult bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(5), 971–985. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006918763143




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejmts.v6i1.669

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2020-2026. European Journal of Multilingualism and Translation Studies (ISSN 2734 - 5475 / ISSN-L 2734 - 5475). All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.