The Impact of Bilingualism on Critical Thinking – Insights from a Comparative Study among Secondary School Students in Germany

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between bilingualism and critical thinking. To investigate this, monolingual and bilingual participants from various public secondary schools in Germany were invited to take part in the experiment through purposive sampling. Data for this quantitative study were gathered using the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (Semerci, 2016), a 49-statement, five-point Likert-type scale. This multidimensional scale assessed the extent to which participants could use metacognition, flexibility, systematicity, tenacity and patience, and open-mindedness to reflect their critical thinking dispositions. When analysing the correlation between bilingualism and the critical thinking dispositions of the participants, these five subscales were used as a basis. The data were analysed using the SPSS software and an Independent Two Samples t-test. The critical thinking dispositions of bilingual children were also compared in terms of gender and age. The study's findings showed that bilingual children seem to have performed better in all five of these critical thinking disposition subscales. According to these findings, it can be concluded that there is a correlation between bilingualism and critical thinking dispositions.