Simulacre Oposicions Anglès (Lengua Extranjera) #3

Read the following text carefully and answer the questions below. **Multilingualism and the Cognitive Advantage: Revisiting the Evidence** For decades, the notion that bilingualism confers cognitive advantages has been a cornerstone of applied linguistics research. The seminal work of Peal and Lambert (1962) first challenged the prevailing deficit hypothesis, and subsequent studies—most notably those by Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues—appeared to demonstrate that bilingual individuals outperform monolinguals on tasks requiring executive function, particularly inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The theoretical rationale is compelling. Bilingual speakers must constantly manage two active language systems, suppressing one while engaging the other. This perpetual exercise in cognitive control, the argument goes, strengthens domain-general executive processes in much the same way that physical exercise strengthens muscles. The parallel processing model (Green, 1998) and the inhibitory control model (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) have provided sophisticated frameworks for understanding how this bilingual juggling act might transfer to non-linguistic cognitive domains. However, the last decade has witnessed a significant reappraisal. Large-scale replication studies, including a comprehensive meta-analysis by Lehtonen et al. (2018) encompassing over 150 studies and 16,000 participants, have found either no bilingual advantage or effect sizes so small as to be practically negligible. De Bruin et al. (2015) documented a troubling publication bias: studies finding a bilingual advantage were significantly more likely to be published than those finding null results, distorting the evidence base. Critics have identified several methodological concerns. The definition of 'bilingual' varies enormously across studies, ranging from early simultaneous bilinguals to late L2 learners with limited proficiency. Socioeconomic status, immigration experience, and educational background are frequently confounded with bilingual status. Moreover, many studies rely on small samples and single-task measures, which are susceptible to idiosyncratic effects. Perhaps more fundamentally, some researchers now argue that the bilingual advantage framework asks the wrong question. Rather than seeking a monolithic 'advantage,' the field should investigate how different bilingual experiences shape cognition in specific and context-dependent ways. Factors such as language distance, frequency of language switching, and sociolinguistic context may all modulate the cognitive effects of bilingualism. For language educators, these debates carry important implications. While the cognitive advantage narrative has been an effective advocacy tool for bilingual education programmes, the scientific case now rests on shakier ground. This does not, of course, diminish the overwhelming social, cultural, and economic benefits of multilingualism—it simply means that the justification for language learning need not rely on contested cognitive claims.