MONTREAL, April 7 (UPI) -- A study by a Montreal researcher suggests more Canadian girls understand both English and French than boys beginning as early as age 5.
Jack Jedwab, executive director of McGill University's Association for Canadian Studies, used recently released 2006 census data to analyze French-English bilingual traits across the country, The Gazette newspaper in Montreal reported Monday.
The study found between ages 5-9, 10 percent of girls reported knowledge of both languages, compared with 8.1 percent for boys. Advancing through various age clusters, the gap widened, and among those 20-24 years-old, 17.3 percent of females were bilingual compared with 11.7 percent for males.
The census data showed it wasn't until after the age of 55 do more Canadian men use both languages more than women, the newspaper said.
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