A novel model of neurocognitive bilingual effect

Abstract

This study accessed the idiosyncratic trend in Common Core subject grade point averages (GPA) of bilingual students from 3rd-8th grade in Brevard County. Bilinguals showed a higher overall GPA by 0.19 grade points. The standardised test scores of bilinguals were 11% higher than their monolingual counterparts. The bilingual cohort had both an average GPA and standardised test score higher than the monolinguals by a factor of approximately 1.06 times for GPA and 1.109 times for standardised test. The bilingualism enhanced cognitive competence index (BECCI) model was created which computed the predicted GPA and standardised test score of an individual bilingual based on four major variables. Of the 284 bilingual students in the study, the model provided an accurate prediction of GPA and standardised test scores (within the error margin of ±0.05) for 256 of the bilinguals giving the model an accuracy rate of approximately 90.14%.