According to this article, "bilingual children have performed better than monolingual speakers on measures of analytical ability, concept formation, cognitive flexibility, and metalinguistic skills."
Also, despite the overwhelming belief of the importance of learning English as soon as possible in the United States, ESL students that learn material in their native language while simultaneously learning English have proven academically and socially stronger than their English-only peers.
My thoughts: Perhaps this is related to the fact that bilingual students are able to take a dual perspective on their educational and social attainments? Because their brain is working differently and crossing over from one language to another in order to perceive and analyze information, these children may be more progressive in their thought processes and also more confident in their social abilities, as a result of successful identification with two cultures.
(Halgunseth)
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