The effects of aging on bilingual language
- Substantial research has examined cognition in aging bilinguals. However, less work has investigated the effects of aging on language itself in bilingualism. In this article I comprehensively review prior research on this topic, and interpret the evidence in light of current theories of aging and theories of bilingualism. First, aging indeed appears to affect bilinguals' language performance, though there is considerable variability in the trajectory across adulthood (declines, age-invariance, and improvements) and in the extent to which these trajectories resemble those found in monolinguals. I argue that these age effects are likely explained by the key opposing forces of increasing experience and cognitive declines in aging. Second, consistent with some theoretical work on bilingual language processing, the grammatical processing mechanisms do not seem to change between younger and older bilingual adults, even after decades of immersion. I conclude by discussing how future research can further advance the field.
Verfasserangaben: | Jana ReifegersteORCiD |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728920000413 |
ISSN: | 1366-7289 |
ISSN: | 1469-1841 |
Titel des übergeordneten Werks (Englisch): | Bilingualism : language and cognition |
Untertitel (Englisch): | what changes, what doesn't, and why |
Verlag: | Cambridge Univ. Press |
Verlagsort: | Cambridge |
Publikationstyp: | Wissenschaftlicher Artikel |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Datum der Erstveröffentlichung: | 01.01.2021 |
Erscheinungsjahr: | 2021 |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 02.10.2023 |
Freies Schlagwort / Tag: | aging; bilingualism; grammatical; lexical processing; processing; second language |
Band: | 24 |
Ausgabe: | 1 |
Aufsatznummer: | PII S1366728920000413 |
Seitenanzahl: | 17 |
Erste Seite: | 1 |
Letzte Seite: | 17 |
Fördernde Institution: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) 'German Research Foundation'German Research Foundation (DFG) [411781424] |
Organisationseinheiten: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
DDC-Klassifikation: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
Peer Review: | Referiert |