Book review: David Miller,Fatih Bayram,Jason Rothman and Ludovica Serratrice (Eds.),Bilingual cognition and language: The state of the science across its subfield

It is estimated that more than half the world’s population can communicate in two or more languages in everyday life. In this light, the question of how multiple languages can coexist and be processed in a single mind has been the focus of psychology and cognitive neuroscience for more than two decades. Miller, Bayram, Rothman and Serratrice take readers on a journey of the history, the present and the future of research of bilingualism/multilingualism by gathering the work of some of the leading scientists in the field.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Studies in Bilingualism (SiBIL) series, this compelling volume contains an up-to-date collection of bilingual research. The breadth and depth of coverage is impressive as it provides a comprehensive overview of the most current research and understanding of bilingualism. Readers are provided with a broad view of multi-language acquisition and its effects on cognition across the lifespan, from childhood to older age, in typical and atypical circumstances. The book is divided into four main parts: (1) theoretical approaches, (2) issues in child bilingualism, (3) issues in adult bilingualism and (4) bilingual cognition, neuroscience and impairment.

In Part I, Cornips (Chapter 2), Wulff and Ellis (Chapter 3) and White (Chapter 4) take readers through the latest theories examining, respectively, bilingualism from sociolinguistic, usage-based and formal linguistic perspectives. Each of these approaches has shaped our knowledge and understanding of how a multilingual mind works. The first approach focuses on the use of sociolinguistics in child bilingual acquisition research, examining the impact of language use and society on bilingual development. Chapter 3 presents an interesting account of the underlying assumptions characterizing usage-based approaches in language development and, more specifically, focusing on the cognitive foundations of existing second language acquisition theories. Chapter 4 provides a brief account of how formal linguistics has allowed bilingual researchers to develop new questions and answer existing questions relating to second language acquisition.

Research in bilingualism has incorporated a global perspective on the attainment of a second language as particular attention has been given to different types of bilinguals in various age groups. This is introduced in Part II of this book, which provides an overview of research conducted on child bilingualism. More specifically, Part II describes the language and cognitive development of simultaneous bilingual children in the first five years of life and discusses the evidence of the so-called bilingual advantage on cognition (Nicoladis, Chapter 5). It continues with a detailed account of phonology, vocabulary and morpho-syntactic development through studies incorporating bilingual child samples compared with their monolingual counterparts (Chondrogianni, Chapter 6). Further information on this topic is provided in the next chapter, which highlights the dynamic nature of bilingualism and how this would complicate the description of bilinguals (De Houwer, Chapter 7). It also argues for a more eclectic and holistic approach as it stresses the complexity and dynamics of the relationship between environmental factors and early bilingual development. The following chapter continues with a collection of theoretical and empirical research regarding literacy development in minority language learners (Murphy, Chapter 8). This section concludes with a review of the collection of naturalistic bilingual data (CHILDES), which highlights the importance of such data in increasing our understanding of developmental trajectories and interactions between languages (Yip, Mai and Matthews, Chapter 9).

In Part III of the volume, we encounter a compelling discussion on the claims surrounding second language syntactic acquisition and production in late learners (Bernolet and Hartsuiker, Chapter 10). This includes a very interesting yet neglected area of bilingualism, namely attrition, which is concerned with the possibility that intense exposure to second languages potentially modifies the way the native language is accessed, processed and produced. Therefore, it is suggested that native languages are not as stable as we once thought (Yılmaz and Schmid, Chapter 11). Continuing on a related theme, the literature discussing how to best classify the language of heritage speakers is considered, which highlights the importance of the acquisition, development and maintenance of the heritage grammar across the lifespan (Putnam, Kupisch and Cabo, Chapter 12).

The final part of this book, Part IV, examines bilingual cognition, neuroscience and impairment. This section tracks the history of bilingual research via an informative review, which explains the relation between bilingualism and non-verbal cognitive skills by clarifying the complexity of the notion of executive function (Bialystok, Chapter 13). The cognitive consequences of bilingualism are then covered in an engaging chapter that elaborates on the impact of bilingual vocabulary on cognition (Bobb and Kroll, Chapter 14). The authors discuss the dynamics and plasticity that accompany bilingualism and how that leads to the ability to ‘juggle’ two different vocabularies, which, after a period, are modified and adapt to each other. An exhaustive review of structural and functional neuroimaging of bilinguals’ language representation, processing and control forms the topic of the next chapter (Del Maschio and Abutalebi, Chapter 15). The compendium concludes with an important overview of clinical studies in atypically developing bilingual individuals. A discussion of the theoretical and clinical studies highlights the challenges experienced by clinicians and researchers in relation to bilingual children with developmental and language disorders (Paradis and Govindarajan, Chapter 16). Finally, a review of the field of bilingual aphasia helps us to better understand how bilingual language processing affects cognition after brain damage. This field is in its infancy so the authors discuss the methodological challenges and provide potential suggestions that could be implemented for the translation of research into clinical settings (Kiran and Gray, Chapter 17).

In summary, this publication offers a valuable interdisciplinary compilation celebrating 25 years of research in bilingualism. It captures the passion of some of the leading names in the field, and is an important contribution that will appeal not only to academics and students but also to health professionals, parents raising bilingual children, and educators who are teaching in multicultural classrooms. It is a must-read volume, which brings insight to theoretical frameworks and empirical findings, and provides a sound basis for future developments in this area of research.