| College learners in the United States are expressing increased interest in second languages. Knowledge of second languages may help them improve their communication skills, which would contribute to their success in careers that demand such knowledge. Recent studies that explored the relationship between bilingualism and exposure to second languages on the one hand and cognitive skills on the other suggested that bilingualism had a positive relationship with creative thinking skills. College learners who took second language courses could expect to improve their creative thinking skills. The aim of this quantitative ex post facto research study was to explore whether college learners in the United States who had successfully completed college-level second language course(s) perform better than those who did not complete such a course(s) on the Alternate Uses test in the domains of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The sample size consisted of 160 participants, of whom 80 were full-time college learners who successfully completed second language course(s). The results of the Alternate Uses test for both groups were analyzed using the SPSS software. A MANOVA test was used to compare the scores of the Alternate Uses test in the domains of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The MANOVA test suggested that a statistically significant difference existed in the domain of flexibility (F (1,158) = 5.602; p 0.05; partial eta 2 = 0.016), originality (F (1,158) = 2.444; p > 0.05; partial eta2 = 0.015), and elaboration (F (1,158) = 2.822; p > 0.05; partial eta2 = 0.018). The recommendation for practitioners is to expect stronger creative thinking skills in the domain of flexibility among college learners who completed college-level second language course(s) but not in the domains of fluency, originality, and elaboration. The research study did not prove that a second language(s) improves creative thinking skills in the domain of flexibility. Further studies are needed with experimental and quasi-experimental research designs with a larger sample size in order to provide more information about the relationship between second languages and creative thinking. |
