The influence of bilingualism and bidialectalism on executive control: evidence from a short-term language switching training paradigm

ABSTRACT

The present study compared bilingualism with bidialectalism in their respective impact on executive control, using a short-term language switching training paradigm for participants who were both bidialectals (Shanghainese-Mandarin Chinese) and bilinguals (Chinese-English). Twenty participants were assigned to a control group where no language switching was involved. Another twenty participants were assigned to an experimental group where language-switching training was applied in two ways: bidialectal-switching between Shanghainese and Mandarin Chinese, and bilingual-switching between Mandarin and English. Their executive control ability was tested via a Simon task before and after each type of language training. The results showed that bilingual switching could involve better executive control and subsequently led to better performance on the Simon task than bidialectal switching. Therefore, the association between language switching control and domain-general executive control could be affected by the languages involved in switching, thus shedding further light on the relations between linguistic and non-linguistic control mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• bidialectalism
• short-term language switching training
• executive control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at East China Normal University (number: HR 271-2020). Informed consent was obtained for experimentation with all participants.

Notes

1 Standard language is the norm or official form of that language. It is typically established by language authorities, educational institutions, or other governing bodies. The standard language is often used in education, government, media, and formal settings (cf., van Marle 1997).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Program of the Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science [grant number 2022EYY006].

Notes on contributors

Xiaoluan Liu

Xiaoluan Liu is currently an associate professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. She obtained her PhD in Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences from University College London (UCL). Her research interests include speech production, perception, bilingualism, and language acquisition.

Jixian Nie

Jixian Nie used to be a Master’s student at East China Normal University.