A Comparison of Executive Functionsand Memoryin Bilingual and Mono lingual Students

The aim of this study was to compare the executive functions (flexibility, planning, and organizing) and memory (active and passive) of monolingual and bilingual students.
For this purpose,120 students, including 60 male and female students who were Persian-speaking monolinguals and aged between 7 to 12 years (30 girls, 30 boys) and 60 Armenian-Persian bilingual students (30 girls, 30 boys) from the second to the sixth grade in district 8 of Tehran were selected by convenience sampling. Andre-ray test was used to measure executive function (planning and organization), and Wisconsin test was used to measure executive function tests (flexibility). Furthermore, 3 × 3 Matrix of Cornoldy was used to measure working memory and Matrix 5 × 5 Cornoldy was used to assess passive memory. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA using SPSS software.
The results showed that the executive functions of organizing and planning of monolingual students are different from bilingual students. However, there was not a significant difference between the two groups in the passive and working memory. In addition, significant differences were not observed between the genders, except that in monolingual students the executive function of flexibility of girls was better than boys.
Based on the results and the advantages of bilingual students in executive functions over monolingual students, early second language education in preschools could be recommended.