erentiationIt is also important to examine the argument put forth by the supporters of monolingualism that children cannot differentiate between their two languages, which leads to confusion. Code mixing, as it is called when a child switches back and forth between languages throughout a conversation, is an often occurrence, even among adults. Children, though, are seen as confused when they do it. It has been shown that children, very early on, are able to differentiate between their two languages. The code-mixing is just a way that they are able to communicate better. It shows more cognitive flexibility and agility, not just with language, but with abstract concepts as well (Genesee et al. 1995). Bialystock (1997) found evidence that bilinguals have a definite advantage over monolinguals in their cognitive functioning. In the study, children (both bilinguals and monolinguals) were shown two pictures and then a word on a card. The card was first put under the picture it described. The child was asked what the card said. Then, two toy bunnies were introduced. They were made to "scuffle" by the experimenters, and in the process, the card was moved under the other picture. The child was then asked again what the card said. Finally, the experimenter told the child to tidy up the mess created by the bunnies (thereby moving the card back to its original position under the right card) and asked what the card said again. The test was meant to measure cognitive consistency with regards to the word on the card. It was found that bilinguals performed better than monolinguals, giving the right word more than monolinguals. The bilingual children performed so well, that the younger bilinguals scored better than older monolinguals, even though the scores did increase with age across the board. Advantages of BilingualismIn yet another study, a widely used standardized test was shown to underestimate the development of bilingual child...
