IMPACT OF BILINGUALISM ON EXECUTIVE INHIBITORY CONTROL AND NARRATIVE COMPLEXITY IN YOUNG ADULTS AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL

Abstract

Bilingualism has come to be greatly considered as a measure of improving cognitive and linguistic abilities. The current research paper explores the effects of bilingualism on executive inhibitory control and narrative complexity among young adults in the university level in both the public and the private universities of the Punjab in Pakistan. The quantitative cross-sectional design was applied, and the sample consisted of 200 undergraduate students divided into the groups of bilingual and monolingual. The standardized cognitive tasks evaluated executive inhibitory control, and the narrative complexity evaluated narrative elicitation in a structured form and a validated scoring rubric of narrative. Independent-samples t-tests, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed in data analysis. The outcomes showed that bilingual students had a significantly better performance in both inhibitory control and narrative complexity than the monolingual students. There was also a moderate positive correlation between executive inhibitory control and narrative complexity, and regression analysis showed that executive inhibitory control predicts narrative sophistication significantly. The results support the hypothesis of bilingual advantage and emphasize the interdependence of the process of language performance and regulating cognitive processes. It brings out the educational and cognitive advantages of bilingualism and provides evidence-based suggestions to curriculum development, language policy and the pedagogy in higher education.