ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Language mixing in bilingual speakers with aphasia has been reported in a number of research studies, but the reasons for the mixing and whether it reflects typical or atypical behaviour has been a matter of debate. AIMS: In this study we tested the hypothesis that language mixing behaviour in bilingual aphasia reflects lexical retrieval difficulty. METHODS & PROCEDURES: We recruited a Hebrew-English bilingual participant with mild-moderate non-fluent agrammatic aphasia and assessed his languages at three timepoints. We analysed the participant's Hebrew and English production for retrieval during single-word naming, sentences, and discourse, and identified all instances of language mixing. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: We found that there was a greater frequency of language mixing during production of more difficult lexical items, namely the post-morbidly less proficient language (compared to the more proficient language), function words (compared to content words), and single-word naming (compared to retrieval in the context of connected speech tasks), but not for verbs (compared to nouns). CONCLUSIONS: In this bilingual participant with non-fluent aphasia, language mixing behaviour closely resembles lexical retrieval difficulty. Thus, we suggest that bilingual speakers with aphasia may mix their languages as a strategy to maximise communication.
ABSTRACT
Cognitive control refers to the ability to perform goal-directed behaviors in the presence of other compelling actions or in the face of habitual practices. Cognitive control functions play a critical role in children's language processing and literacy development. In recent years, many clinicians have expanded their assessment and treatment to target specific cognitive skills. Our goal is to provide a review of recent findings on cognitive control functions in children with different language status (i.e., monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment). While children with language impairment show performance deficits in specific cognitive functions (e.g., working memory updating and interference control), typically developing bilingual children often outperform their monolingual peers in cognitive control tasks. However, the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control has been controversial. Several factors that influence these variations are discussed. Given the findings on the joint impact of bilingualism and language impairment on cognitive control functions, we identify conditions in which bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of the language deficit and conditions in which language impairment has a stronger effect than bilingualism. Critical issues of bilingual assessment, suggestions, and future directions are discussed.
