Mirror Tracing by Monolingual and Bilingual Iranian Children

Abstract

Bilingual Iranian children learn to write English left-to-right in addition to the native Persian, right-to-left. 36 were compared with 34 monolingual subjects in tracing a square pattern. Results were: no difference in the simple task of direct tracing; superior performance by bilinguals in mirror tracing which requires reversed eye-hand coordination; and less interference shown by bilinguals in direct tracing after a series of mirror-tracing trials. Performance was not significantly correlated with any of several socioeconomic/school-achievement variables. The difference between monolinguals and bilinguals was attributed to the latter's acquired flexibility in writing coordination, comparable to flexibility in cognitive behaviors found in other studies.