WHEN TWO LANGUAGES MEET IN THE MIND: COGNITIVE EFFECTS OF BILINGUALISM ON ENGLISH SPEECH EXPLORING HOW BILINGUALISM RESHAPES ENGLISH SYNTAX, VOCABULARY, AND PROCESSING
Keywords:
bilingualism, cognitive linguistics, English speech, syntax shift, lexical access, language processing, metalinguistic awarenessAbstract
This study explores the cognitive impact of bilingualism on English speech production, with a particular emphasis on how it alters syntactic choices, vocabulary usage, and real-time processing strategies. Drawing upon contemporary findings in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics (Abutalebi & Green, 2008; Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2004; Kroll & Bialystok, 2013), the paper challenges the traditional notion that bilingualism leads to interference or structural errors. Instead, it presents evidence that bilingual speakers develop adaptive cognitive mechanisms that enable them to navigate between language systems efficiently (Kroll & Bialystok, 2013). These mechanisms influence not only the structure of English sentences but also the speed and accuracy of lexical access and the strategic simplification or enhancement of expressions. Bilingual individuals often exhibit greater metalinguistic awareness, increased cognitive flexibility, and a heightened ability to switch between registers depending on context (Grosjean, 2010). Rather than viewing bilingual English as a deviation from the norm, the paper argues for its recognition as a dynamic and evolving variant—one shaped by the coexistence and interaction of two cognitive language systems within a single mind.
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References
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. W. (2008). Control mechanisms in bilingual language production: Neural evidence from language switching studies. Language and Cognitive Processes, 23(4), 557–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960801920602
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