The Impact Of Early Bilingual Exposure On English Language Proficiency And Creative Thinking Skills At The Students Of Graduate Level

Abstract

The article under study evaluates how early exposure to bilingualism can lead to proficiency in their English language and thinking creatively in postgraduate students. The main goal would be understanding how early experiences of learners as bilinguals are associated with increased linguistic skills, acquisition of different thinking styles of learners in institutions of higher learning. The sample size included graduate students in both public and private [1]universities in the state of Punjab, Pakistan. Stratified random sampling was used in selecting a total sample of 200 students to guarantee an adequate representation of gender, type (field) of academic discipline and institutional type. A correlational approach of the quantitative research design was used in the study to establish the correlation between early bilingualism and English proficiency and creativity. Standardized instruments that were used to measure the English language proficiency and Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) that measures the creative abilities were used to collect data. There was also self-created demographic questionnaire to obtain participants linguistic background and exposure to bilingualism. The data were analyzed with the help of SPSS (Version 26) based on descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses. Findings showed that there was a positive correlation between early exposure to the process of bilingual language and ability to deal with English language and ability to think creatively, significantly. In addition, regression analysis indicated that early bilingualism, as a predictor, is related to creative performance and similar competence in the graduate level. The results highlight the cognitive and linguistic advantages on the early bilingual environment and raises assumptions on curriculum design and language education policy on a multicultural setting.