Encoding-specificity in bilingual content learning

Bilingual (and multilingual) learning is one central challenge of todays education systems. First, there is an increasing number of individuals in educational situations in which the language of instruction is not their mother tongue (e.g., immigrant children). Second, there are strong educational endeavors to promote multilingualism, for instance through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). In CLIL, instruction of non-language subjects such as mathematics takes place in a foreign language. In both cases, learners are required to switch languages between learning (or instruction, respectively) and recall (or application, respectively) of knowledge. Previous research has shown that such language switching is accompanied by poorer performance. For instance, when certain mathematical content is learned in a foreign language but used in the mother tongue, learners need more time and make more mistakes in recall and application of this knowledge than when the same language is used in both situations (e.g., learning and recall in the mother tongue). The poorer performance in case of different languages during learning and recall are labelled language-switching costs. Language-switching costs have been mainly investigated for relatively simple mathematical content such as learning new arithmetic problems. Thus, almost nothing is known yet about language- switching costs in more demanding mathematical learning situations. In addition, there is very scarce research yet on the questions of how long these language-switching costs last (how temporally stable they are, respectively), how they affect subsequent learning (building upon the newly learned content), whether individuals with different abilities show different costs, and what the psychological bases of these costs are. These questions are addressed in the present research project. The 3-year project consists of two working packages. In the first working package, language-switching costs in learning new arithmetic procedures and facts (such as the multiplication table) are evaluated. In the second working package, more demanding mathematical learning tasks are employed which also require the learning of new concepts. Each working package comprises two studies, one examining the temporal stability of the language-switching costs, and one their effects on subsequent learning. The relevance of individual differences in abilities and the psychological bases of language-switching costs are investigated in all studies. Participants in the studies are bilingual (German-English) students in CLIL programs and adult students of different subjects at university. The results of this research project provide new insights into the importance of language in learning, which is relevant to both researchers and practitioners dealing with bilingual learning (e.g., in CLIL).