- PhD student in Teaching English as a Foreign Language,Allameh Tabatabai University.
Abstract
Although the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development have been widely investigated, the issue is still controversial. The question of whether bilingualism leads to cognitive advantages not shared by monolinguals has been debated for decades. Most of the studies in the first half of the 20th century show a bias towards the negative aspects of bilingualism on intelligence (Romaine, 1995). More recent studies, however, have addressed methodological problems that biased the results of these investigations towards negative findings (Jarvis et al., 1995). The present article provides an opportunity for the reader to familiarize themselves with the most famous studies done on this issue in the 20th century. They are chronologically divided to two types according to their results.
