Bilingualism And Overall Academic Performance

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 many studies, bilingual learners' brain can have better attentiveness and the ability to switch tasks than a mono-lingual learner’s brain because of their cognitive ability to control to suppress one language while using another language or switch from one language to another language simultaneously. Bilingualism also positively affects learners' academic progress (Saer, D. J. 1923).

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.

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

This included at least one teacher for each foreign language class offered as well. The survey provided no additional information about the research and required each student to select their grade level. Responses remained completely anonymous; however, it was required that each student be logged into their school gmail account to take the survey. This allowed Google to collect each email address before each attempt and verify that each student was a part of the district as well as confirmed that the student had not already taken the survey previously. This ensured each response was unique and that no one student was able to submit multiple responses. With over 250 submissions, I made sure that there were at least fifty respondents per each grade level and that the proportion of responders and their grade levels were proportional. There was a slight unbalance between junior and sophomore responses (sophomores representing about 30% of respondents and juniors 22%), but senior and freshman responses balanced near 25% of the sample population. This created an equal ground for collecting data, which ensured the data be statistically significant. Since quantitative results cannot directly respond to the research question, the method was additionally supplemented with

Bilingualism and multilingualism are well practiced through the World. Despite it being well accepted on other parts of the globe, many areas in the United States tends to turn a cold shoulder to it.. Most education policies concerning bilingual or not based on scientific evidence and research (which has discovered the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism) but rather pre conceived notions and stigmas when it comes to the practice. After some brief research, I believe we should embrace the "new wave" practices and policies, which are more well informed rather than the past. Researches also need to explore new ways in which the brain retains, recognizes and organizes language learning. Now is the tome to put evidence based practices and

This study is important as it extremely relevant in the globalized society that we live in today, in addition to the fact that it offers further evidence on the tangible benefits of raising a child to be bilingual that come later in his or her life. Even if the study does not show a clear and convincing correlation between raising a child to be bilingual and higher academic performance in college, I believe that my study will encourage people to think more about the potential benefits of raising a child to be

Bilingualism is a person’s ability to speak two or more languages fluently. Initially it was believed that bilingualism had negative effects on an individual’s intelligence and speech and it was thought that the knowledge of multiple languages would complicate one’s thought processing rather than improve its functioning. This theory

The world has become a global village and that has brought a lot of changes and new work positions into the market. Almost everywhere around the globe, bilingual professionals are in high demand. Also, bilingualism opens up two worlds of experience, job opportunities, literature, resources, and cultural heritage. Bilinguals have the privilege of getting their information from a wider variety of resources. Besides, research has shown that it’s easier for bilingual children to acquire other languages later in life. A study conducted by professors of the Department of Special Education of the University of Haifa, Israel showed that “students who know two languages would have an easier time gaining command of a third language than would students who are fluent in only one language.”

It was also found that 60% of students believed that their reading ability had an effect on their achievement in French and Japanese. As aforementioned in the Literacy Review that suggested bilingualism improved brain function because of this students who have a higher understanding of languages over then English are more likely to be in the upper academic brackets. Due to this collation between bilingualism and academic results it can be summarised that students who are achieving higher results in languages because of their reading ability are likely to be in a higher academic

Those who agree with this statement argue that bilingual education produces a safety net that widens the gap between the cultures and makes it difficult for a student to be successful when dealing with other subjects, such as math or science, in their nonnative language. As research has shown, the reality is quite the opposite when a second language is taught correctly from an early age. The teaching of a foreign language actually helps connect foreign language students with their peers, allowing them to share their culture and strengthens the brain in a way that actually helps a student throughout their schooling and in

Due to the rise in bilingual programs in the U.S., researchers began to wonder how a child’s brain was able to process two languages simultaneously. To their utter amazement, students who were bilingual benefit in multiple areas of their lives. For example, they have greater cognitive flexibility, superior language skills, and a higher IQ. Nevertheless, some parents, teachers, and even some researchers were concerned that immersing students in the target language, with no instruction in the first language, may cause students to lose their ability to converse/use their first language. In other words, fear began to rise that teaching in only the desired second language may cause the students to favor that language over their native language. This is where the research controversies

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

My research process involved intellectual engagement with the use scholarly sources to add superior knowledge. As I began researching, I searched information over the broad topic of bilingual education positives; I decided to focus on a specific topic. I decided to write about how bilingual education directly affects school children.

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.