Bilingualism certainly exerts effects on cognitive, linguistic and social development of individuals. The early studies tended to emphasize negative effects, some showed that there is no connection and more recent studies tend to point out positive effects of bilingualism.
For many decades linguists tried to understand if there is a relation between bilingualism and cognitive development. However, it needs to be noted that only balanced bilingualism is considered to have any relationship to cognition because only a person with two equally developed languages can relate his/her existent linguistic knowledge and awareness to other areas and functions of learning.
In the first half of the 20th century a research on relationship between bilingualism and cognition has been carried out and most of it indicated that bilingualism has negative consequences on cognitive development.
Contemporary linguists do not share the same negative opinion of their earlier colleges. Many researches have been conducted since 1960's and 1970's and they mostly emphasize positive cognitive outcomes of bilinguals. One of the first studies that emphasized positive effects of bilingualism was conducted by Pearl and Lambert in 1962. Their study researched a coherent (in terms of age, nationality, sex and socio-economic backgrounds) sample of French-Canadian children, who were compared with a similar group of monolinguals. The bilingual group performed much better in non-verbal and verbal intelligence. Skutnabb-Kangas T.(1981, Bilingualism or Not: The Education of Minorities. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters., p.224) has investigated the IQ of bilingual children and arrived to a conclusion that in cognitive development bilinguals are not disadvantaged. In fact, they are likely to be advantaged.
Prior to 1990's two important hypotheses were established and both of them emphasize positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive functions. They are the Threshold Hypothesis and the Language Awareness Hypothesis.
These two hypotheses tried to define what impacts has bilingualism not only on cognition, but also on linguistic development of a balanced bilingual. Balanced bilingual speakers have an advantage because they have two codes for every concept. This leads to a greater cognitive flexibility and better abstract reasoning powers. However, bilingualism also impacts on individuals' social development and their social mobility. I believe that a higher threshold of bilingual proficiency positively effects cognition. The most likely explanation for this is that a bilingual person would apply his/her already possessed knowledge and abilities to other areas as well as language.
Some sociologist claim that "Academic achievement is enhanced by factors relating directly to the preservation of ethnic cultures - such as language spoken at home, (L1) literacy, ethnic self-identification, ethnicity of friends, and commitment to ethnic endogamy." These values can be transmitted only through L1. Therefore, bilingualism has a huge impact on individual's social mobility and development Besides impacts on cognitive functions and social development, it is clear that bilingualism also impacts on one's linguistic development as it was already mentioned earlier. It is believed that a child acquires L2 similarly to L1. Having two codes for each linguistic concept is something monolinguals don't possess. This makes bilinguals more flexible and they tend to adapt and react easier and quicker to different linguistic needs. A bilingual person has the ability to code-switching and interference if needed. He / she can apply general linguisitc knowledge to other areas, which makes them advantageous.
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