Ko'p yillar davomida tadqiqotlar ikki tilda gaplashadigan odamlar diqqatni boshqarish, rejalashtirish va vazifalar orasida almashishda ustunlikka ega ekanini ko'rsatgandek edi. G'oya mantiqiy: ikki tilli odam doimo bitta tilni “o'chirib”, boshqasini ishlatadi — bu miya uchun mashq.

Nashr qilinmagan tadqiqotlar

2014-yilda Edinburg universiteti olimlari Anxela de Bryuyn, Barbara Trekkani va Serjo Della Sala qiziq savol berdi: konferensiyalarda taqdim etilgan tadqiqotlarning qaysilari keyinchalik jurnallarda chop etilgan? Ular 104 ta konferensiya tezisini ko'rib chiqdi. Taxminan yarmi ikki tillilik ustunligini qo'llab-quvvatlagan, yarmi esa uni topmagan yoki rad etgan.

Lekin jurnalda chop etilganlar orasida manzara boshqacha: ustunlikni topgan tadqiqotlarning 63 foizi nashr qilingan, topmaganlarning esa atigi 36 foizi. Ya'ni ijobiy natijalar deyarli ikki baravar ko'p chop etilgan — bu “nashr tarafkashligi” deb ataladi.

Fanda ham “qiziqarli” natija ko'proq e'tibor oladi — shuning uchun “zerikarli” natijalarni ham bilish kerak.

Demak, ikki tillilik foydasizmi?

Yo'q. Bu tadqiqot ikki tillilikning kognitiv foydasi yo'qligini isbotlamaydi — faqat u avval o'ylangandek katta va aniq bo'lmasligi mumkinligini ko'rsatadi. Ijtimoiy va amaliy foydasi esa shubhasiz: yangi odamlar, kitoblar, universitetlar va imkoniyatlar.

• Til — imkoniyat uchun. FLEX, Harvard, xalqaro grantlar — hammasi til orqali ochiladi.
• Har kuni oz-ozdan. Ikkinchi tilni kundalik odatga aylantiring.
• Ikki tilda o'qing. Bir mavzuni o'zbek va ingliz tilida o'qish tushunchani chuqurlashtiradi.
• “Super kuch”ni kutmang. Asosiy foyda — muloqot va bilim, IQ emas.

Manba: de Bruin, Treccani & Della Sala, “Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias?”, Psychological Science, 2015; K. Hopkin, Scientific American, 2014. Matn — o'zbek tilidagi erkin qisqacha bayon.

For many years, studies seemed to show that people who speak two languages have an advantage in controlling attention, planning and switching between tasks. The idea makes sense: a bilingual person constantly “turns off” one language and uses the other, which is exercise for the brain.

The studies that were never published

In 2014, University of Edinburgh researchers Angela de Bruin, Barbara Treccani and Sergio Della Sala asked an interesting question: which studies presented at conferences were later published in journals? They examined 104 conference abstracts. About half supported a bilingual advantage, and about half found none or challenged it.

Among those that reached a journal, the picture was different: 63% of the studies that found an advantage were published, but only 36% of those that did not. Positive results were almost twice as likely to be published. This is called publication bias.

In science, too, “exciting” results get more attention, which is why the “boring” ones matter.

So is bilingualism useless?

No. This study does not prove that bilingualism has no cognitive benefit; it only shows that the benefit may be smaller and less certain than once thought. The social and practical benefits are beyond doubt: new people, books, universities and opportunities.

• Languages open doors. FLEX, Harvard, international grants: they all go through language.
• A little every day. Make your second language a daily habit.
• Read in two languages. Reading one topic in Uzbek and English deepens understanding.
• Do not expect a superpower. The main benefit is communication and knowledge, not IQ.

Source: de Bruin, Treccani & Della Sala, “Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias?”, Psychological Science, 2015; K. Hopkin, Scientific American, 2014. Text: a free summary.