The effect of bilingualism and dyslexia on working memory, reading comprehension and oral language proficiency

The relationship between bilingualism and monolingualism in the context of working memory, oral language proficiency and reading comprehension is complex and requires further investigation. The aim of the present study was to investigate if there is an advantage of bilingualism. We investigated whether bilingual and monolingual individuals perform differently in tasks of working memory capacity, reading comprehension and oral language proficiency. Our total sample of N=54 comprised 20 typical bilinguals, 15 typical monolinguals, 13 monolinguals with dyslexia and 6 bilinguals with dyslexia. We administered the Operation-word Span Test, the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement, the Oral narrative task and the reading practice tests of the TOEFL ( Test of English as a Foreign Language). Performance across groups was compared, controlling for age, sex and education. Our study showed no advantage of bilingualism for working memory capacity and comparable second language reading and language abilities between monolinguals and bilinguals. Poorer working memory capacity performance for individuals with dyslexia was only seen in the monolingual group. No other group differences were significant. This study contributes to the sparse literature and provides insight into cognitive and language abilities of monolingual and bilingual individuals, and whether knowing a second language may show any benefit for those with reading difficulties. Our findings strengthen the idea that, while there is no advantage of bilingualism per se, there might be a beneficial effect of bilingualism in dyslexia at the linguistic and cognitive level.