SDLC 105: Learning Journal #9

[Timaj Yusuf]

Many people argue that bilingualism can make you smarter, because it improves some cognitive skills that are not related to languages and also may improve against dementia. This article was interesting to read, because it contained a lot of descriptive statistics, citing research studies that have looked at this phenomenon. However, I think this argument is a very broad claim. What does it mean to be smart? People who are bilingual are smarter in what, exactly? The New York Times article cites a lot of studies that have done puzzles on participants, but there are many factors that can influence these results. How was the sampling done? The 2009 study led by Kovac claims that the babies who were raised on two languages where quicker to anticipate the appearance of the puppet. But, it is possible that there are other (extraneous) variables and influenced this reaction from the baby, and not language. As a student who has taken many statistics and social science research courses, I have become weary of articles that make broad claims!