A Semantic Verbal Fluency in Arabic-Persian Bilingual and Persian Monolingual Adults

The study of bilingualism is often separated from the study of language abilities in monolinguals. However, a comparative study can provide better and more comprehensive results. The purpose of this study was to find the bases and compare the ability of semantic fluency function in healthy Arabic-Persian bilingual and Persian monolingual subjects.This comparative cross-sectional study was performed on 58 Arabic-Persian bilingual and 60 Persian monolingual adults aged 20-40 years by Convenience sampling method. Semantic verbal fluency task was used to compare naming skill in both bilingual and monolingual groups. In this task, the subject was asked to name fruit and animal categories in one minute. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22).All variables, apart from number of fruits, had significant difference between Arabic and Persian in bilinguals (P<0.05). The difference in mother language between the two groups was statistically significant in all semantic fluency tasks (P<0.05). The difference in mean semantic fluency in Persian language between bilingual and monolingual subjects was significant except for the two variables of fruit number and cluster size. Bilinguals performed better in their second (Persian) language. There was a significant difference between the mother language of bilinguals and monolinguals in semantic fluency. However, in Persian language there were no differences between the two groups in the two variables of fruit number and cluster size.