Neurocognitive effects of bilingual education: an ERP study on language processing and executive function

Abstract

Background: Bilingual education has been widely discussed for its potential impact not only on linguistic competence but also on neurocognitive development. Previous research has reported inconsistent findings regarding the “bilingual advantage,” often due to reliance on behavioral measures without direct neural evidence.

Aim: This study aims to investigate the neurocognitive effects of bilingual education by comparing bilingual and monolingual learners in terms of language processing and executive functions, with a specific focus on Event-Related Potentials (ERP) as neural markers.

Method: A total of 60 participants (30 bilinguals, 30 monolinguals) from Indonesian universities completed semantic judgment, syntactic anomaly detection, Stroop, and Flanker tasks while EEG data were recorded. ERP components analyzed included N400, P600 (language processing) and N2, P3 (executive functions). Data were processed using EEGLAB, and statistical analyses were conducted via mixed-design ANOVAs.

Results: Bilingual participants demonstrated significantly higher accuracy and faster reaction times in behavioral tasks compared to monolinguals. ERP results further revealed larger N400 and P600 amplitudes in bilinguals, reflecting more efficient semantic and syntactic processing, as well as greater N2 amplitudes and shorter P3 latencies, indicating superior conflict monitoring and attentional control.

Conclusion: The findings provide robust behavioral and neural evidence for the bilingual advantage, suggesting that bilingual education enhances both linguistic and executive functions. These results support the adaptive control hypothesis and highlight the pedagogical value of bilingual education in strengthening higher-order cognitive skills.