A growing body of research has shown that bilingualism enhances aspects of executive control and leads to better performance on a range of cognitive tasks for children and young adults. More recently, this advantage has been shown to extend into older age, demonstrating slower cognitive decline for bilinguals with healthy aging. The present talk will focus on new research that examines changes in the brain that underlie some of these differences. I will report evidence from younger and older adults showing that the regions used by bilinguals to perform certain cognitive tasks are somewhat different than those used by monolinguals, and that the crucial areas in the front part of the brain necessary for performing these tasks are more intact in bilinguals. The presentation will also describe research investigating the memory and cognitive performance of individuals diagnosed with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, where these protective effects continue to exert an influence on bilinguals.

There is enormous underutilized potential to bring modern research on the behavioral and brain bases of language and cognition to bear on critical issues in education. I will present research concerning the seemingly intractable "achievement gap" in reading between African American children and whites. This gap is not wholly explained by SES or environmental factors, and it increases during the first few years of schooling. One neglected factor is differences in language background. Building on research on first and second language learning and neuroplasticity, we have begun to examine how differences between home and school dialects affect children's classroom experiences. Other factors aside, children who speak a "nonstandard" dialect such as African American English face a more complex learning environment than children who speak the "standard" dialect: they are learning to accommodate the standard dialect while acquiring reading, math and other skills. Because all children are assessed against the same achievement standards, a "gap" results. This research also suggests ways in which the impacts of dialect differences could potentially be ameliorated.