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Abstract

Benefits of being bilingual? The relationship between pupils’ perceptions of teachers’ appreciation of their home language and executive functioning We aimed to investigate whether bilingual pupils’ perceptions of their teachers’ appreciation of their Home Language (HL) were of influence on bilingual cognitive advantages. We examined whether Dutch bilingual primary school pupils who speak either German or Turkish at home differed in perceptions of their teacher’s appreciation of their HL, and whether these differences could explain differences between the two groups in executive functioning. Executive functioning was measured through computer tasks, and perceived HL appreciation through orally administered questionnaires. The relationship between the two was assessed with regression analyses. German-Dutch pupils perceived more appreciation of their home language from their teacher than Turkish-Dutch pupils did. This difference partly explained differences in executive functioning. Besides, we replicated bilingual advantages in nonverbal working memory and switching, but not in verbal working memory or inhibition. This study demonstrates that bilingual advantages cannot be dissociated from the influence of the sociolinguistic context of the classroom. Thereby, it stresses the importance of culturally responsive teaching.