Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

1 Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 department of Speech Therapy, Rehabilitation School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 department of Biostatistics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.

10.30476/jrsr.2023.96323.1312

Abstract

Background: Numerous studies have yielded conflicting results concerning the disparities in verbal (semantic and letter) fluency between monolingual and bilingual individuals. Given the linguistic variations among bilinguals and the influence of cultural differences on language, this study examined verbal fluency in Kurdish and Azari bilinguals and compared it with that of Farsi monolinguals.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 30 Farsi monolingual students, 28 Kurdish-Farsi bilinguals, and 29 Azari-Farsi bilinguals. The study utilized semantic (fruits and animals) and letter fluency tasks (/f/, /a/, and /s/). Each bilingual participant was instructed to perform the verbal fluency tasks twice: once in their native language and once in Farsi.
Results: In both fluency tasks, bilinguals demonstrated superior performance in Farsi compared to their mother languages (Azari and Kurdish) (P <0.001). Furthermore, no significant differences were observed between bilinguals and monolinguals in the formal language of their community (Farsi).
Conclusion: The formal language in Iran (Farsi) predominates among bilingual individuals. This is likely because the educational system and formal writing are conducted in Farsi. Bilinguals typically use their native language only for conversations within their native context and with their peers.
 

Highlights

Seyede Zohre Mousavi:googel scholar

Azar Mehri:googel scholar

Keywords

  1. Chapey R. Language intervention strategies in aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders. Filadelfia, Pensilvania: Lippincott williams and Wilkins Ed; 2001.
  2. Cook V, Bassetti B, editors. Language and bilingual cognition. Psychology Press; 2011.
  3. Albert ML, Obler LK. The Bilingual Brain: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism. Perspectives in Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics.1978.
  4. Fennig CD. Ethnologue: languages of Asia. SIL International Publications; 2017.
  5. Taler V, Johns BT, Young K, Sheppard C, Jones MN. A computational analysis of semantic structure in bilingual verbal fluency performance. Journal of Memory and Language. 2013 Nov 1;69(4):607-18.
  6. Wauters L, Marquardt TP. Category, letter, and emotional verbal fluency in Spanish–English bilingual speakers: A preliminary report. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology; 2018 Jun;33(4):444-57.
  7. Portocarrero JS, Burright RG, Donovick PJ. Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 2007 Mar 1;22(3):415-22.
  8. Rosselli M, Ardila A, Araujo K, Weekes VA, Caracciolo V, Padilla M, Ostrosky-Solí F. Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals. Applied neuropsychology. 2000 Mar 1;7(1):17-24.
  9. Anderson JA, Saleemi S, Bialystok E. Neuropsychological assessments of cognitive aging in monolingual and bilingual older adults. Journal of neurolinguistics. 2017 Aug 1;43:17-27.
  10. Gollan TH, Montoya RI, Werner GA. Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals. Neuropsychology. 2002 Oct;16(4):562.
  11. Luo L, Luk G, Bialystok E. Effect of language proficiency and executive control on verbal fluency performance in bilinguals. Cognition. 2010 Jan 1;114(1):29-41.
  12. González HM, Mungas D, Haan MN. A semantic verbal fluency test for English-and Spanish-speaking older Mexican-Americans. Archives of clinical neuropsychology. 2005 Mar 1;20(2):199-208.
  13. Ostrosky-Solis F, Gutierrez AL, Flores MR, Ardila A. Same or different? Semantic verbal fluency across Spanish-speakers from different countries. Archives of clinical neuropsychology. 2007 Mar 1;22(3):367-77.
  14. Poreh AM, Schweiger A. The effects of second-language acquisition on verbal fluency among elderly Israelis. CNS spectrums. 2002 May;7(5):377-86.
  15. Malek A, Hekmati I, Amiri S, Pirzadeh J, Gholizadeh H. Designing and standardization of Persian version of verbal fluency test among Iranian bilingual (Turkish-Persian) adolescents. Journal of Research in Clinical Medicine. 2013 Sep 6;1(1):32-42.
  16. Bethlehem D, De Picciotto J, Watt N. Assessment of verbal fluency in bilingual Zulu-English speakers. South African Journal of Psychology. 2003 Nov;33(4):236-40.
  17. de Picciotto J, Friedland D. Verbal fluency in elderly bilingual speakers: Normative data and preliminary application to Alzheimer’s disease. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica. 2001 Apr 18;53(3):145-52.
  18. Schmidtke J. Second language experience modulates word retrieval effort in bilinguals: evidence from pupillometry. Frontiers in psychology. 2014 Feb 21;5:65697.
  19. Edmonds L, Kiran S. Confrontation naming and semantic relatedness judgements in Spanish/English bilinguals. Aphasiology. 2004 Jun 1;18(5-7):567-79.
  20. Fishman JA, Cooper RL. Alternative measures of bilingualism. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1969 Apr 1;8(2):276-82.
  21. García O. Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. John Wiley & Sons;2011.
  22. Roberts PM, Le Dorze G. Semantic organization, strategy use, and productivity in bilingual semantic verbal fluency. Brain and language. 1997 Oct 1;59(3):412-49.
  23. Blumenfeld HK, Bobb SC, Marian V. The role of language proficiency, cognate status and word frequency in the assessment of Spanish–English bilinguals’ verbal fluency. International journal of speech-language pathology. 2016 Mar 3;18(2):190-201.
  24. Lehtonen M, Soveri A, Laine A, Järvenpää J, De Bruin A, Antfolk J. Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review. Psychological bulletin. 2018 Apr;144(4):394.