According to the results of a recent study, bilinguals are not capable of “turning off” a language entirely. The study, conducted by Ghent University psychologists Eva Van Assche, Wouter Duyck, Robert Hartsuiker and Kevin Diependaele, found that knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native language reading.
The study examines 45 Ghent University bilingual students. The participants were asked to read several sentences containing both controlled words (plain words in their native language) and cognates (words that have a similar meaning across languages). The moderators were observing the students to see where their eyes paused. The researchers came to the conclusion that a second language is always active and has a direct impact on reading another language. The study has been published in Psychological Science, the flagship journal of The Association for Psychological Science.
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