The Role of Internal and External Individual Difference Factors in Bilingual Development: Exploring Highly Proficient Kurdish-English Bilinguals’ Perceptions

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative research, the present study examines the characteristics of seven highly proficient Kurdish-English bilingual adolescents and their perceptions of the role of individual difference factors in bilingual development. Adopting a deductive thematic analysis approach, the collected data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed. The findings indicate that special attention should be paid to both internal and external factors in order for Kurdish-English bilinguals to reach high level of proficiency in both languages. External factors of richness of input, input quantity, language output, and socioeconomic status are crucial for fostering morphosyntactic and lexical skills in Kurdish and English. Moreover, the bilingual learners stated that conducting mathematical and logical problem-solving activities frequently and having high level of language learning aptitude are important predictors of rapid development of bilingual language abilities. In terms of age effects, the bilingual adolescents conveyed that having younger age and earlier start to Kurdish and English learning always lead to better morphosyntactic and lexical outcomes in both languages. To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to explore the role of individual difference factors in bilingual development among highly proficient Kurdish-English bilinguals. The paper highlights implications and directions for further research.