Executive functioning and different expressions of bilingualism: a multilingual sample

The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 4th and 5th grade Elementary School students from private schools in the city of Foz do Iguaçu, western Paraná, southern Brazil. Foz do Iguaçu is part of the Triple Border Area, which is heavily multilingual, with three official languages and multiple ethnic minorities. The study’s participants were recruited from private schools related to the Arabic community of Foz do Iguaçu. The main researcher and one to four out of seven trained research assistants simultaneously collected the data in the school library during school time (for school B). School A granted private classrooms for data collection. Each participant’s data was collected individually by the researcher or one of the research assistants. A total of eight research assistants associated with the Psychology of Bilingualism Laboratory (LabLingue) participated in the present study. A letter of invitation containing the informed consent forms and copies of the LSBQ and CSQ questionnaires were sent to the parents. The children whose parents agreed to participate by returning the signed consent forms and filled questionnaires were asked to sign an assent form, if they agreed to participate. The data collection lasted 30 minutes per child, on average. After the participant agreed to participante and signed the assent form, RCM was applied, followed by the ST and the VST.