Are Bilinguals Smarter Than Monolinguals Essay

Bilingual are those who use two or more languages in life. Some people are able to talk fluently in two different languages like able to speak, read, and understand two languages equally well is called bilingual. Knowledge of a second language given to the a person to talk with a wider range of people. Therefore, speak to languages lead to be more intelligent. There are many positive effects and negative effects from being bilingual.

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.

In my opinion bilingualism plays a major role in the educational development of children. This is because research has shown that children who are fluent in their home language are more successful in learning a second language. Furthermore, being bilingual offers greater sensitivity to language, more flexibility in thinking and better ear for listening. It also improves a child’s understanding for the native language. Moreover, knowledge of other languages increases a career of opportunities offering several job options.

Whether bilinguals are smarter or not is a debatable topic to many. In the article, “Why Bilinguals are Smarter,” Yudhijit Bhattacharjee claims that being bilingual is not only useful, but also makes a person smarter. According to his article, switching between two or more languages uses a different parts of the brain. Furthermore, this actually helps a person monitor their environment more closely and allows them to multitask more easily, compared to monolinguals.

Kids that learn a second language at an earlier age tend to have the ability to multitask with ease. In a video called The benefits of a bilingual brain - Mia Nacamulli, she explains how although being bilingual would not make you smarter it does keep your brain healthy and more active and

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

Over the years, bilingual education has involved teaching children academics in two different languages so they may become competent learners and be successful at acquiring English. Before 1968, bilingual education was not a required course in American schools, but instead as a voluntary program. This changed in 1981 when a lawsuit was brought against the state of Texas that resulted in the requirement of bilingual education programs in elementary schools as English as a second language (ESL) program, bilingual programs in post-elementary grades through eighth grade, and ESL programs in high school. This type of education has been a hot topic for the state governments of the United States, debating whether to keep in the curriculum of schools. Many asking themselves, why should we to provide bilingual education for these students? What will students gain from this type of education? Studies have shown there are benefits that range from cognitive ability, educational advancement, to employment opportunities with a bilingual education, while the critics label it as a “failed experiment” that costed a whole lot of money and years to maintain a basic foundation in the second language. Although the cost is hefty for this exploration of a new language and is time consuming, the cognitive abilities, educational advancement, and employment opportunities greatly outweigh these opposing factors.

Being bilingual comes along with many benefits and some of those are receiving higher test scores and also being able to converse

Bilingualism has been found to enhance one’s memory. Researchers in Canada say that the “working memory includes the structures and processes associated with the storage and processing of information over short periods of time.” Which means that being bilingual helps you in the long run, as it increases your mind's capacity to retain information

Throughout the years, time has showed us that being bilingual has gain importance and is consider to be more of a necessity now. A brain that understands more than one language is more alert than one who knows just one language. Being bilingual has many benefits. A couple advantages of being bilingual would be greater job opportunities, comfortable traveling and higher test scores.

I expect to find those university students that are raised bilingual as children to have slightly higher standardized test scores and college GPAs in comparison to university students that were raised only speaking English at home. Specifically, I expect there to be a correlation between people who were raised to be bilingual in early childhood from ages 0-5 and higher academic performance at the university level, specifically on subjects relating to the humanities. For example, I would presume that these bilingual students would have higher GPAs in college if they were an English, Language or History major, as well as a higher score on the Reading and Writing sections of the standardized college placement exams like the SAT and the ACT.

This paper will touch upon the positive benefits of bilingualism and how it affects children, during their childhood and well into adulthood. In addition this paper will look into the scientific and general advantages of bilingualism through scientific studies on the subject. This paper will also identify some of the pros and cons of growing up bilingual. Specifically to be cognitive flexibility, metalinguistic awareness, communicative sensitivity, attentiveness and combatting dementia. A new research era began into bilingualism after the research of Peal and Lambert in 1962, this was a break through in research, which proved that kids who were bilingual did better at the tasks than those who were monolingual. Prior to this, bilingualism had been thought to cause negative set backs among children. These setbacks include retardation in children and increased confusion in separating both languages at an early stage. Although this theory has been outdated, bilingualism is still known to cause confusion for a short period of time throughout childhood lifespan. Although bilingualism has its pros and cons, there are more pros than cons. Kids who grow up in a bilingual household are known to experience some confusion separating two languages or infants are known to go through a silent stage. In simple tasks as the “Simon task”, bilingual participants are known to perform better and have faster reaction times. Simon tasks test the individual’s attentive control as well as reaction

377). Garcia agrees by stating that using an additive approach to language in schools produces good effects on cognition (2011). Bilingual education seems to be good for the mind in many ways.

“Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who are bilingual are different than those who are not, and those differences are for all the better.”(time) Researchers are saying that it's so much more beneficial to learn two languages rather than one. “Multilingual people, studies show, are better at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(time) They are known to work faster and use less energy in the process. In doing so they retain their senses longer are studies show that it can delay or give you more time to get dementia or Alzheimer's than the average person. With all of the positive outcomes of learning in a bilingual school, schools make it very hard and competitive to make it into the

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.