tl;dr-ELT

What are the big assumptions people make about bilinguals? Somewhere near the top of the list is the idea that switching between languages somehow makes you “smarter” or “more creative”. A recent (open access) study by Gyulten Hyusein & Tilbe Göksun at Koç University, published in Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, takes a closer look at the latter belief & asks a more precise question: how does the language you’re using in the moment shape the way creative ideas form in your mind?

The study

The researchers worked with thirty‑six Turkish–English bilinguals. For the purposes of the study, L1 refers to participants’ first‑learnt language (Turkish), which they use most effortlessly for imagery & inner speech.

The participants completed two classic creativity tasks in both languages one week apart.

• One was a divergent thinking task (the Alternative Uses Task), which asks people to generate as many ideas as possible.
• The other was a convergent thinking task (the Remote Associates Test), which asks people to find the single correct link between three words.

After each trial, participants rated how vivid their mental imagery had been on a 0–100 scale. All responses were video‑recorded so the researchers could code representational gestures– hand movements that depict shape, movement or abstract ideas. L2 proficiency was measured using the LEAP‑Q (Language Experience & Proficiency Questionnaire), a self‑report tool that captures how often & how fluently bilinguals use each of their languages.

The findings

Participants were more creative in L1 than L2 on both divergent & convergent tasks.
Mental imagery was also more vivid in L1.
L2 proficiency predicted L2 creativity, but did not predict imagery vividness.

Gestures turned out to play an interesting role:

• In L1, more representational gestures tended to support divergent thinking.
• In L2, more gestures were linked to lower divergent thinking scores.
• For convergent thinking, more gestures predicted lower performance in both languages, especially when imagery was vivid.

In short: gestures didn’t “rescue” L2 creativity. In some cases, they even got in the way.

Context

The results echo long‑standing evidence that mental imagery is a key driver of creative thinking (e.g., Le Boutillier & Marks 2003). They also align with research showing that imagery is typically weaker in a later‑learned language (e.g., Hayakawa & Keysar 2018; Blazhenkova et al. 2023).

The article also highlights three useful nuances.
First, thinking in L2 increases cognitive load, which may leave fewer mental resources available for vivid imagery or flexible idea generation.
Second, L1 often carries richer emotional & sensory associations, giving imagery more “hooks” to latch onto.
Third, the authors describe L1 imagery as feeling “high‑definition” compared to the more “standard‑definition” imagery that often emerges in L2—a neat metaphor for teachers thinking about why ideas may feel sharper in one language than another.

The gesture findings complicate assumptions from embodied cognition frameworks—theories suggesting that thinking is grounded in bodily action & sensory experience, so gestures should in principle support imagery & idea generation. Here, the relationship was far more language‑dependent.

To make this concrete: imagine asking learners to brainstorm creative uses for a paperclip. In L1, a student might picture the object vividly, gesture a twisting motion & generate a novel idea. In L2, the same student might gesture more because the task feels harder, but the gestures don’t necessarily connect to strong imagery, so the creative payoff is weaker.

One thing I think worth noting (& that I find a little odd) is that the researchers didn’t mention or control for aphantasia: a condition where people have little or no voluntary mental imagery. Around 2–5% of the population experience it. For these individuals, “imagery vividness” ratings behave very differently, which could matter in a study where imagery is central.

Teacher Takeaways?

• Treat L1 as a legitimate cognitive resource when learners are doing idea‑generation tasks.
  Example: Let learners sketch the first spark of an idea in L1 before shaping it in English- it helps them build the vivid mental picture that fuels creativity.
  Try it: Use a quick Alternative Uses Task (e.g., “How many uses can you think of for a paperclip?”) & let learners warm up ideas in L1 before switching to English.
• Explicitly scaffold (& leverage) imagery (visual prompts, modelling mental pictures).
• For convergent tasks with tight time limits, encourage learners to pause & visualise before speaking.
  Example: A two‑second mental picture of the three prompt words often leads to a clearer, quicker answer than jumping straight into speech or gesture.
  Try it: Give learners a mini Remote Associates Test item (“snow – man – ball”) & ask them to picture the three items together before answering.

How do you encourage creativity in your learners, or ‘do tasks’?