Shifting the Discourse from Deficit to Difference: Understanding the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning in Bilingual Learners

Gigi Luk

In increasing numbers of schools across the U.S., many children who are bilingual are tasked with learning new knowledge in English, which is their second, developing language. These children’s learning outcome, when compared with their English-proficient peers, is often characterized as inferior. Furthermore, bilingual children are also disproportionately represented in special education. The academic achievement gap between bilingual children with different levels of English proficiency and their monolingual English-speaking peers is complex. Critically, what are the considerations to identify atypical learning mechanisms for bilingual children and differentiate from developing second language proficiency?

In this talk, I will explore education, psychology, and neuroscience research on language diversity, academic achievement, and special education consideration. Taking an interdisciplinary approach in this discussion is necessary to shift the stubborn emphasis on performance deficits by recognizing and harnessing children’s strength to enrich learning. Going beyond recognizing language diversity in schools, this shift in emphasis is necessary to embrace language diversity in U.S. schools by providing equitable access to academic knowledge for bilingual children and designing linguistically sensitive pedagogy for all children.