Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 2, No. 1, 1990

The Influences of Bilingualism / Mohammad Ali Alkhuli

This paper aims at explicating the influences of bilingualism (B) on intelligence. language skills. academic achievement, emotional adaptation, and cognitive functions. it also aims at introducing relevant studies and exploring the reasons underlying differences in conclusions. This paper has reached the fol- lowing conclusions:
1. Some studies indicated that B hurts intelligence. Others indicated B develops it and others indi. cated B has no influence.
2. Some studies indicated that B hurts all language skills. Others indicated B enriches those skills and others indicated B hurts only some skills.
3. Some studies indicated that B has a positive effect on academic achievement. Others indicated B has a negative effect.
4, Some studies indicated that B influences emotional adaptation positively. Others indicated a negative effect. Others indicated that the influence varies according to individual cases and circumstances.
5. Some studies indicated that B develops abstraction ability and mental flexibility. Others reported no effect.
6. Different studies have given different conclusions owing to one or more of these reasons: lack of factors control, dealing with different types of B, bias of instruments, misinterpretation. differences in experimentation periods, negligence of protesting, sampling bias, differences in sample size. over- generalization. usage of unreliable instruments, and inadequate statistical processing.