105 Learning Journal #9

[Stephen Huffnagle]

Overall, I thought that the idea that bilingualism makes someone "smarter" to be a little misleading. Although it appears that being bilingual helps with certain activities, as well as corresponds with a lower chance of dementia, it also appears to correspond with a smaller vocabulary in each language. It all depends on how you evaluate intelligence. Bilinguals appear to be able to make executive decisions quicker than their monolingual counterparts, but it is up to us to decide if that is true intelligence. Over all, it seems that being bilingual seems to contribute to greater executive function at the cost of some vocabulary earlier in life. I think that is a trade that most people would be pretty happy to make.