| Abstrakt: |
In 2020, 21.5% of US preschoolers spoke a language other than English at home. These children transition into English‐speaking classrooms in different ways, often handling foundational concepts in two languages. Critically, some knowledge may be dependent on the language of learning. For instance, both bilingual children and adults typically prefer, and exhibit higher performance on arithmetic in the language in which they learned math (LA+) compared with their other language (LA−). The typical interpretation is that arithmetic facts are accessed from memory more efficiently or solely in LA+. However, recent research suggests that bilingual arithmetic is not restricted to one language in memory, and that language experience plays an important role in performance. Moreover, evidence suggests children and adults process arithmetic fundamentally differently. Thus, bilingual arithmetic memory may manifest differently across the life span. This review outlines evidence to date at the intersection between the brain basis of bilingualism, arithmetic processing, and development. Bilinguals typically learn arithmetic facts by rehearsing them in one language, creating a performance advantage in that language compared with their other language(s). This difference in performance across languages can have real‐world implications in the classroom and in daily commerce. This review highlights scientific research investigating how bilingual school‐aged children and bilingual adults process simple arithmetic in each of their languages. The evidence broadly suggests that the bilingual brain is dynamic and flexible when performing arithmetic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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