Justice and equity for whom? Reframing research on the “bilingual (dis)advantage”

The search for the existence and nonexistence of bilingual advantages and disadvantages has become a battleground marked by polarized comments and perspectives, furthering our understanding of neither bilingualism as an experience nor cognition as higher-level mental processes. In this paper, I prov...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Applied psycholinguistics 2023-05, Vol.44 (3), p.301-315
Main Author:	Luk, Gigi
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Association (Psychology) Bilingual Students Bilingualism Cognition Cognition & reasoning Cognitive ability Cognitive Psychology Cultural heritage Educational Experience Educational Practices Executive Function Intelligence tests Language Language Acquisition Language Enrichment Language Impairments Language Minorities Language Processing Monolingualism Multilingualism Neurosciences Original Article Position Papers Psycholinguistics Psychologists Researchers Resistance (Psychology) Scientific Research Social Science Research Social Status Towards a Just and Equitable Applied Psycholinguistics
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Summary:	The search for the existence and nonexistence of bilingual advantages and disadvantages has become a battleground marked by polarized comments and perspectives, furthering our understanding of neither bilingualism as an experience nor cognition as higher-level mental processes. In this paper, I provide a brief historical overview of research examining the cognitive and linguistic consequences of multilingualism and address the assumptions underlying research exploring the bilingual behavioral difference. I aim to illustrate the sole focus on behavioral (dis)advantage fails to reflect the complexity and dynamicity of people’s bilingual experiences, thereby distracting from understanding bilingualism. Responding to the call of this special issue, I describe the necessity to focus on people when moving toward a just and equitable future for applied psycholinguistic research. Furthermore, I explain why the nuances of bilingualism need to be recognized beyond binary categorization to advance knowledge about bilingualism and its consequences. To avoid unjust misattribution of a behavioral outcome to people’s life experience and to report research findings in a transparent manner, the myopic representation of the terms “bilingual (dis)advantage” should be recognized and reflected on.
ISSN:	0142-7164 1469-1817