Not All Bilinguals Are the Same: A Call for More Detailed Assessments and Descriptions of Bilingual Experience

Bilinguals are not all the same. There are differences in bilinguals' language proficiency, when they acquired a second language, their patterns of language use, and code switching. Although these variations may affect language-related processes and executive functioning, researchers rarely assess them. The author of this article first presents findings from studies of bilingualism in relation to executive functioning. Then she reviews different proposed measures to more accurately define bilingual experiences. The author concludes by saying that future studies on the effect of bilingualism on executive functioning should carefully examine bilinguals' language proficiency, age of acquisition, their language uses, code switching as well as the interactional contexts in which they use their languages.