Evidence of a “bilingual advantage” in adolescents’ learning of foreign languages is far from conclusive. The results of various studies range from none to partial or conditional confirmation of the assumption of bilingual advantages in this respect. Overall, these findings come from research that focused primarily on reading or indicators of general language proficiency. Studies on potential bilingual advantages for writing in foreign language learning are still scarce. Corresponding longitudinal research on multilingual writing skills in adolescence is completely lacking. To address this research gap, our study examines whether bilingual adolescents may have advantages over their monolingual counterparts in developing writing skills in English as a foreign language. Based on data from four waves of the German study “Multilingual Development: A Longitudinal Perspective (MEZ)”, we analyze the writing of German-Russian and German-Turkish bilingual adolescents in English as a foreign language compared to a monolingual reference group. Our analyses include controls of background variables as well as writing skills in the heritage and majority languages. Our results point to the occurrence of, at most, minor group-specific and nonpermanent effects of bilingualism on foreign language learning at school in Germany.
Evidence of a “bilingual advantage” in adolescents’ learning of foreign langua- ges is far from conclusive. The results of various studies range from none to partial or conditional confirmation of the assumption of bilingual advantages in this respect. Overall, these findings come from research that focused primarily on reading or indicators of general language proficiency. Studies on potential bilingual advantages for writing in foreign language learning are still scarce. Corresponding longitudinal research on multilingual writing skills in adole- scence is completely lacking. To address this research gap, our study examines whether bilingual adolescents may have advantages over their monolingual counterparts in developing writing skills in English as a foreign language. Ba- sed on data from four waves of the German study “Multilingual Development: A Longitudinal Perspective (MEZ)”, we analyze the writing of German-Russian and German-Turkish bilingual adolescents in English as a foreign language compared to a monolingual reference group. Our analyses include controls of background variables as well as writing skills in the heritage and majority lan- guages. Our results point to the occurrence of, at most, minor group-specific and nonpermanent effects of bilingualism on foreign language learning at school in Germany.