Neuropsychological and cognitive effects of Chinese language instruction

Since little is known concerning the cortical and cognitive effects resulting from the study of a tonal, logographic language which is read from top to bottom and in a right-to-left direction, neuropsychological and intellectual measures on 51 bilingual and 41 monolingual Chinese-American children aged 9 to 12 years were compared. Multivariate statistical analyses yielded significant group differences. As predicted, the over-all mean IQ of bilinguals was higher than that of monolinguals. Other than coding skills, expected superior performance of bilinguals on right-hemisphere or bilaterally sensitive measures was not found; rather, the left-dominant sequential abilities of bilinguals surpassed those of their monolingual peers. English fluency of the two groups was equivalent and monolingual youngsters obtained higher scores on two of five academic achievements tests than bilinguals. The effects of Chinese language instruction among Chinese-American children are discussed in relation to the distinguished educational accomplishments of Asian Americans.