Six advances in research on bilingualism

Abstract

In the 30 years since the publication of Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals (Harris, 1992), the study of cognitive processing in bilingual speakers has branched out in several new directions. Each of these new directions has involved advances in theories, conceptualizations, methods, and findings. The six new directions we will highlight are these:

• 1.
  The shift from a focus on experiments with word lists to a focus on utterances,
• 2.
  Relating models of human performance to Artificial Intelligence (AI) models,
• 3.
  Understanding patterns of bilingual development across the lifespan,
• 4.
  The effects of cross-language transfer,
• 5.
  The shaping of bilingual cognition and age effects through social and motivational forces, and.
• 6.
  New methods for in vivo online tracking of language learning.