An investigation on non-linguistic cognitive benefits of bilingual adolescents to introduce an appropriate CLIL model for the bilingual education programme in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Bilingualism is the ability of the user to use two languages for communication. Self-Efficacy is described as a Non-Linguistic Cognitive benefit of being Bilingual. Adolescence is the age that an individual realizes the value of use of English as a connecting language in communication. In past studies, since it is revealed that Early Bilingualism gives more cognitive benefits, a hypothesis was tested in this research and the Academic Self Efficacy levels were measured in a survey. The study carried out to compare the significant differences among the Bilingual Adolescents exposed to two languages under the four diverse age slots of life during their childhood which were identified as FB, KG, PS, BE. The Convergent parallel Mixed Methods Research Design was used, employing 300 bilingual adolescents from six selected 1AB schools, and 8 bilingual adolescents were observed and interviewed in a multiple case study. Quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS, One Way ANOVA and no significant differences were noticed to say that the age of bilingual exposure could be a reason to outwit early bilinguals than late bilinguals. Through data triangulation, the learning environment, the motivation of the school, the economic and social backgrounds of the parents, and the competition for university entrance were identified to be the most striking factors, than the effect of the age they were first exposed to a bilingual environment. To improve the academic consilience of language teaching process in Sri Lanka, it is crucial to develop a suitable CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) model which meets future endeavors of Social Sciences in the country.