Using Language Entropy to Characterize Bilingual Language Experience: a Study of Adyghe-Russian and Tatar-Russian Bilinguals

Abstract

It is believed that bilingualism contributes to the enhancement of executive functions in bilingual individuals as they need to constantly control the simultaneous activation of two or more languages in their brains. However, decades of research have led to contradictory conclusions regarding the existence of bilingual advantage. One of the promising approaches to resolving these contradictions is a more detailed examination of bilingual language experience. The aim of this study was twofold. First is to empirically test the language entropy method as a way of measuring variability in bilingual language use in different interaction contexts. Second is to examine the relationship between bilinguals’ language entropy and executive functions (cognitive flexibility, goal maintenance, conflict monitoring). The study involved 111 bilinguals (mean age = 20.5 (2.97); 75.7% female), who are speakers of Adyghe-Russian and Tatar-Russian languages. The battery of instruments included a questionnaire on demographic and language experience, containing questions to calculate language entropy in four contexts (home, university, work, free time), a Color-shape switching task to measure executive functions (domains of cognitive flexibility, goal updating, conflict monitoring), and Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test to assess nonverbal intelligence. The results demonstrated that language entropy of the bilinguals from both regions did not exceed a score of 0.66 in all the contexts which indicates the use of predominantly one language in everyday communications. However, in the “university” context, bilinguals speaking Tatar and Russian used languages in a more balanced way than bilinguals speaking Adyghe and Russian languages. The results suggest that the language entropy method can be highly effective for characterizing bilingual language experience. The results also showed that there was no relationship between language entropy of the bilinguals in this study and their executive functions (domains of cognitive flexibility, goal updating, conflict monitoring). This is consistent with the predictions of the Adaptive Control Hypothesis.

Keywords

• bilingualism
• executive functions
• language entropy
• cognitive flexibility
• bilingual advantage
• tatar language
• adyghe language