Bilingualism And Cognitive Development On Children

Being bilingual is a tool that can enhance someone’s life tremendously. The development of this tool can happen either simultaneously or successively.

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.

In the world of teaching, bilingual education has found new ways to help students and teachers alike whether

In a globalized world, English is and has been universal language for communications around the world. For that reason, U.S. has never had an urgency to learn and appreciate foreign languages. Most of school systems treat language classes not important as the core curriculum. According to the current positions on bilingual education, schools in the United States teach languages at exactly the wrong time and exclude children from all the benefits that extend beyond pure communication. It’s extremely important to be bilingually educated to adapt into increasingly globalized world. Moreover, even necessary, for those who should reach out and speak at least one other language. Being bilingual comes with various advantages and immeasurable benefits.

When completing the reading Chapter 6: Linguistic Diversity in U.S Classrooms the chapter was focused on the impact education can have in students’ learning more specifically language. Despite the hostility, bilingual education has ultimately proved to be an effective program for students. Still, teachers should take on the notion of additive bilingualism which is a situation where a second language is learnt by an individual or a group without detracting from the development of the first language. The reading emphasizes that a second language adds to, rather than replaces the first language. Students should embrace their first language as being bilingual is an advantage. As a pre-service teacher his reading informs me to give students the

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

　　　　Language is an essential part of our daily lives. Language is used to communicate with other people to meet our needs and satisfy our understandings. Everyone uses one language or another. Some have an advantage and are able to use

Many of the diverse children that are in classrooms today speak, or are learning to speak, two languages. This can become very confusing to the child at times, and make understanding him or her challenging. However, teachers need to recognize that it is important to support the development of both of these languages, because they both make up the identity of a child. Some ways in which teachers can support duel language learning is by, encouraging children to use their home language at school, interacting with duel language learners as much as possible, creating opportunities for peers to interact with the ELL students, developing predictable routines and activities that use the English language, but do not require a response from the ELL student, and concentrating on the meaning of what an ELL child is saying and not on the grammatically correctness of

assert in their study that, while there is strong evidence in support of the positive cognitive effects of bilingualism in children, there is a lack of research to determine whether this effect persists into adulthood. The aim of their research is to pursue this line of investigation. Furthermore, if a positive effect is observed in adulthood, the authors also want to evaluate whether this advantage mitigates the cognitive decline observed in older adults. This study needs the reader to accept that the previous research which shows that bilingual children possess a cognitive advantage over monolingual children is valid. Based on this observed advantage in children, they hypothesize that the advantage would be seen in younger adults as well as older

A dual language bilingual education strategy is usually employed in public schools. Typically the minority language students and the majority language students are evenly distributed throughout the classrooms. Both languages are used for instruction with evenly distributed 50/50 time. One teacher shall instruct with the home language while other instruction is in English. The two teachers work collaboratively through all the lessons. Since these students are in mainstream education, it is no surprise that most students prefer to use English the majority language. The goals of a dual language program are to develop high levels of proficiency of the first language then subsequently the second language. Consequently, it is desired to

First, it is important to identify two main types of bilingual education; transitional and maintenance. Transitional means the primary focus is on learning the dominant language, while drifting apart from the minority language. On the other hand, maintenance deals with maintaining and developing the L1 while also trying to learn the dominant language (Hidden Curriculum, 2014). The main focus of maintenance is to help the child maintain their cultural identity while also trying to help them learn the minority language while living in a society that is prevalent in that specific language (Hidden Curriculum, 2014). Now that we have had the chance to talk about bilingual education and talk about two important aspects of bilingual education

The benefits of bilingualism is something that is well understood in the literature spawning the term, “the bilingual advantage,” which is supposed to encompass enhanced performance control as well as overall mental flexibility culminating in an overall slower decline in executive function as aging continues. Such claims are well supported by evidence from young to old in a multitude of studies spanning decades. What is just as well understood and researched but less often talked about are the negative effects of bilingualism on the brain. Second language acquisition, while potentially providing some benefits to memory and executive control, negatively impacts vocabulary size and linguistic recall tasks of bilinguals compared to monolinguals resulting in less language and verbal fluency.

Depending on whom you ask, the topic of bilingualism is something that many individuals wonder and ask questions about, especially when it comes to language development. One of the main concerns parents and educators alike have about being bilingual is how is what kind effect will it have on a child when learning a second language while growing up. Many are scared because at times they think the child would lose their first language or not be able to learn a new language because it might be too difficult for them to learn to languages at the same time. However, there are people who also wonder if after learning and becoming proficient in one language is it easier to become proficient in many other languages. Therefore, studies have shown the effects of bilingualism in language and cognitive and have found theories to prove it. According to the author, “The theories of bilingualism include the balance theory, common underlying proficiency, threshold theory, and the linguistic interdependence hypothesis”(Wallner, 2016:15). Since these researchers did find out about these theories, they also identified that there are multiple benefits in speaking two languages; which are increased cognition and intercultural competence.

Bilingual education is an academic approach followed by some instructors, which is using the native language for new English learners for instructions. Within the international context, bilingual education has become a necessity due to the high number of immigration, colonialism and the great number of local languages (Yushau & Bokhari, 2005). This approach in instruction has reflected back positively or negatively in many dimensions such as social, psychological, and pedagogical. However, bilingual instruction is an effective way of teaching English as a second language, in case of well implementation it can be seen as an educational advantage. This literature covers a wide variety of opinions that revolves around a topic that researchers find it controversial, this review will highlight the major question and